LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA S250326y
GCN Circular 39871
Subject
LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA S250326y: Identification of a GW compact binary merger candidate
Date
2025-03-26T02:38:50Z (2 months ago)
From
Chia-Hsuan Hsiung <sw56540@gmail.com>
Via
Web form
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, and the KAGRA Collaboration report:
We identified the compact binary merger candidate S250326y during real-time processing of data from LIGO Hanford Observatory (H1), LIGO Livingston Observatory (L1), and Virgo Observatory (V1) at 2025-03-26 01:54:06.153 UTC (GPS time: 1426989264.153). The candidate was found by the cWB [1], cWB BBH [2], GstLAL [3], MBTA [4], PyCBC Live [5], and SPIIR [6] analysis pipelines.
S250326y is an event of interest because its false alarm rate, as estimated by the online analysis, is 3.6e-12 Hz, or about one in 1e4 years. The event's properties can be found at this URL:
https://gracedb.ligo.org/superevents/S250326y
After parameter estimation by RapidPE-RIFT [7], the classification of the GW signal, in order of descending probability, is BBH (>99%), Terrestrial (<1%), NSBH (<1%), or BNS (<1%).
Assuming the candidate is astrophysical in origin, the probability that at least one of the compact objects is consistent with a neutron star mass (HasNS) is <1%. [8] Using the masses and spins inferred from the signal, the probability of matter outside the final compact object (HasRemnant) is <1%. [8] Both HasNS and HasRemnant consider the support of several neutron star equations of state for maximum neutron star mass. The probability that either of the binary components lies between 3 and 5 solar masses (HasMassGap) is <1%.
Two sky maps are available at this time and can be retrieved from the GraceDB event page:
* bayestar.multiorder.fits,1, an initial localization generated by BAYESTAR [9], distributed via GCN notice about 31 seconds after the candidate event time.
* bayestar.multiorder.fits,2, an initial localization generated by BAYESTAR [9], distributed via GCN notice about 5 minutes after the candidate event time.
The preferred sky map at this time is bayestar.multiorder.fits,2. For the bayestar.multiorder.fits,2 sky map, the 90% credible region is 1687 deg2. Marginalized over the whole sky, the a posteriori luminosity distance estimate is 6237 +/- 1766 Mpc (a posteriori mean +/- standard deviation).
For further information about analysis methodology and the contents of this alert, refer to the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Public Alerts User Guide https://emfollow.docs.ligo.org/.
[1] Klimenko et al. PRD 93, 042004 (2016) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.93.042004
[2] T. Mishra et al. PRD 105, 083018 (2022) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.105.083018
[3] Tsukada et al. PRD 108, 043004 (2023) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.108.043004 and Ewing et al. PRD 109, 042008 (2024) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.109.042008
[4] Aubin et al. CQG 38, 095004 (2021) doi:10.1088/1361-6382/abe913
[5] Dal Canton et al. ApJ 923, 254 (2021) doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac2f9a
[6] Chu et al. PRD 105, 024023 (2022) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.105.024023
[7] Rose et al. (2022) arXiv:2201.05263 and Pankow et al. PRD 92, 023002 (2015) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.92.023002
[8] Chatterjee et al. ApJ 896, 54 (2020) doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab8dbe
[9] Singer & Price PRD 93, 024013 (2016) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.93.024013
GCN Circular 39874
Subject
LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA S250326y: Updated Sky localization
Date
2025-03-26T15:19:25Z (2 months ago)
From
A. Domiciano at Côte d’Azur Observatory <armando.domiciano@ligo.org>
Via
Web form
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, and the KAGRA Collaboration report:
We have conducted further analysis of the LIGO Hanford Observatory (H1), LIGO Livingston Observatory (L1), and Virgo Observatory (V1) data around the time of the compact binary merger (CBC) candidate S250326y (GCN Circular 39871). Parameter estimation has been performed using Bilby [1] and a new sky map, Bilby.multiorder.fits,0, distributed via GCN Notice, is available for retrieval from the GraceDB event page:
https://gracedb.ligo.org/superevents/S250326y
For the Bilby.multiorder.fits,0 sky map, the 90% credible region is 1460 deg2. Marginalized over the whole sky, the a posteriori luminosity distance estimate is 5412 +/- 1720 Mpc (a posteriori mean +/- standard deviation).
For further information about analysis methodology and the contents of this alert, refer to the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Public Alerts User Guide https://emfollow.docs.ligo.org/.
[1] Ashton et al. ApJS 241, 27 (2019) doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ab06fc and Morisaki et al. PRD 108, 123040 (2023) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.108.123040