J/A+A/649/A72 GW190814 observations taken with MeerLICHT (de Wet+, 2021)
GW190814 follow-up with the optical telescope MeerLICHT.
de Wet S., Groot P.J., Bloemen S., Le Poole R., Klein-Wolt M., Koerding E.,
McBride V., Paterson K., Pieterse D.L.A., Vreeswijk P.M., Woudt P.
<Astron. Astrophys. 649, A72 (2021)>
=2021A&A...649A..72D 2021A&A...649A..72D (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Novae ; Photometry ; Optical
Keywords: gravitational waves - stars: black holes - stars: neutron
Abstract:
The Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories detected
a signal on 2019 August 14 during their third observing run, named
GW190814. A large number of electromagnetic facilities conducted
follow-up campaigns in the search for a possible counterpart to the
gravitational wave event, which was made especially promising given
the early source classification of a neutron star-black hole merger.
We present the results of the GW follow-up campaign taken with the
wide-field optical telescope MeerLICHT, located at the South African
Astronomical Observatory Sutherland site. We use our results to
constrain possible kilonova models.
MeerLICHT observed more than 95% of the probability localisation each
night for over a week in three optical bands (u,q,i) with our initial
observations beginning almost 2 hours after the GW detection. We
describe the search for new transients in MeerLICHT data and
investigate how our limiting magnitudes can be used to constrain an
AT2017gfo-like kilonova.
A single new transient was found in our analysis of MeerLICHT data,
which we exclude from being the electromagnetic counterpart to
GW190814 owing to the existence of a spatially unresolved source at
the coordinates of the transient in archival data. Using our limiting
magnitudes, the confidence with which we can exclude the presence of
an AT2017gfo-like kilonova at the distance of GW190814 was low
(<10-4).
Description:
From the 1484 raw images taken over the course of our GW190814
follow-up campaign we identified 651 images that were unaffected by
vignetting, as listed in the table A1. Subsequent analysis was
undertaken using this dataset.
For each Field ID we provide the RA and Dec of the field centre, along
with the GW190814 sky location probability density (P2D) integrated
over the field's solid angle. Observations are listed in
chronological order per field with the filter and limiting magnitude
provided per observation. The exposure time for all observations was
60 seconds.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
tablea1.dat 48 652 Usable observations taken with MeerLICHT
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: tablea1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 4 I4 --- Field ID of the field according to MeerLICHT's
fixed sky-grid
6- 11 F6.3 % P2D GW190814 sky location probability density
contained within field
13- 20 F8.5 deg RAdeg Right ascension of the field centre (J2000)
22- 30 F9.5 deg DEdeg Declination of the field centre (J2000)
32- 40 F9.3 d MJD Modified Julian date of observation
42 A1 --- Filter [uqi] Filter used
44- 48 F5.2 mag limmag AB limiting magnitude in Filter
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Acknowledgements:
Simon de Wet, dwtsim002(at)myuct.ac.za
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 10-Mar-2021