Speaker
Description
The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4 observing run will bring the amount of gravitational wave (GW) detections to an unprecedented level. The full exploitation of this opportunity will be possible if we provide innovative tools for quick data analysis using intuitive grafical user interface. In particular this approach is important in the electromagnetic follow-up decision process, as the time spent on investigating the interest of an alert must be short.
Hereby we present a web service https://www.virgo.pg.infn.it/maps integrated in the environment of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) and we sketch its implementation. The application was developed in accordance with the FAIR principles, allowing the efficient exchange of essential information between the different partners in the multi-messenger observation [1]. It provides an immediate and accurate visualization of the localisation of astronomical transients available in the GW open database [2]: each localisation of the GW source, provided through a Multi-Order Coverage (MOC) map [2-3], can be tested and intersected with the sky area visible from an observatory of interest. User parameters and the output information is accessible from a web browser in a clear and standardized format. Finally we would like to point out the technological advantages of our service, from the point of view of future technical challenges, due to the anticipated exponential increase of transient detections [4-5] as well as to the growth of the heterogeneous multi-messenger community.
Bibliography:
1. Berriman, G. Bruce, et al. "The International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) in 2020." arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.05988 (2020).
2. R. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration), "Open data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo", SoftwareX 13 (2021) 100658.
3. Fernique, P., et al. “MOC: Multi-Order Coverage map. Version 2.0” IVOA Working Draft 2021-03-24 https://www.ivoa.net/documents/MOC/20210324/WD-moc-2.0-20210324.pdf
4. Greco, G., et al. “Multi Order Coverage Data Structure to Plan Multi-Messenger Observations.” Astronomy and Computing 39 (2022): 100547. doi.org:10.1016/j.ascom.2022.100547.
5. Maggiore, M, et al. “Science Case for the Einstein Telescope.” Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2020, no. 03 (2020): 050–050. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2020/03/050.
6. Coughlin, M.W. “Lessons from counterpart searches in LIGO and Virgo’s third observing campaign.” Nat Astron 4, 550–552 (2020). doi:10.1038/s41550-020-1130-3.