Abstract

Recent observational and theoretical results suggest that short-duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) originate from the merger of compact binary systems of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole. The observation of SGRBs with known redshifts allows astronomers to infer the merger rate of these systems in the local universe. We use data from the SWIFT satellite to estimate this rate to be in the range ∼500-1500 Gpc-3 yr-1. This result is consistent with earlier published results which were obtained through alternative approaches. We estimate the number of coincident observations of gravitational-wave signals with SGRBs in the advanced gravitational-wave detector era. By assuming that all SGRBs are created by neutron star-neutron star (neutron star-black hole) mergers, we estimate the expected rate of coincident observations to be in the range ≃ 0.2-1 (≃ 1-3) yr -1.

Department(s)

Physics

Sponsor(s)

National Science Foundation (U.S.)

Comments

A.D. and M.C. are partially supported by the National Science Foundation through awards PHY-0757937 and PHY-1067985.

Keywords and Phrases

Gamma-ray burst: general; Gravitational waves

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0004-637X

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2013 Institute of Physics - IOP Publishing, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Apr 2013

Download

Full Text Link

Included in

Physics Commons

Share

 
COinS