Facilitating Follow-up of LIGO–Virgo Events Using Rapid Sky Localization
We discuss an algorithm for accurate and very low-latency (<1 s) localization of gravitational-wave (GW) sources using only the relative times of arrival, relative phases, and relative signal-to-noise ratios for pairs of detectors. The algorithm is independent of distances and masses to leading order, and can be generalized to all discrete (as opposed to stochastic and continuous) sources detected by ground-based detector networks. Our approach is similar to that of BAYESTAR with a few modifications, which result in increased computational efficiency. For the LIGO two-detector configuration (Hanford+Livingston) operating in O1 we find a median 50% (90%) localization of 143 deg{sup 2} (558 deg{sup 2}) for binary neutron stars. We use our algorithm to explore the improvement in localization resulting from loud events, finding that the loudest out of the first 4 (or 10) events reduces the median sky-localization area by a factor of 1.9 (3.0) for the case of two GW detectors, and 2.2 (4.0) for three detectors. We also consider the case of multi-messenger joint detections in both the gravitational and the electromagnetic radiation, and show that joint localization can offer significant improvements (e.g., in the case of LIGO and Fermi /GBM joint detections). We show that a prior on the binary inclination, potentially arising from GRB observations, has a negligible effect on GW localization. Our algorithm is simple, fast, and accurate, and may be of particular utility in the development of multi-messenger astronomy.