| Title: |
Searches for Prompt Low-frequency Radio Counterparts to Gravitational-wave Event S250206dm with the OVRO-LWA Time Machine |
| Authors: |
Kosogorov, Nikita; Hallinan, Gregg; Law, Casey; Hickish, Jack; Dowell, Jayce; Mooley, Kunal P.; Anderson, Marin M.; Bowman, Judd D.; Byrne, Ruby; Catha, Morgan; Chen, Bin; Chen, Xingyao; Chhabra, Sherry; D'Addario, Larry; Davis, Ivey; Elder, Katherine; Gary, Dale; Harnach, Charlie; Hellbourg, Greg; Hobbs, Rick; Hodge, David; Hodges, Mark; Huang, Yuping; Isella, Andrea; Jacobs, Daniel C.; Kemby, Ghislain; Klinefelter, John T.; Kolopanis, Matthew; Lamb, James; Mahesh, Nivedita; Mondal, Surajit; O'Donnell, Brian; Plant, Kathryn; Posner, Corey; Powell, Travis; Prayag, Vinand; Rizo, Andres; Romero-Wolf, Andrew; Shi, Jun; Taylor, Greg; Trim, Jordan; Virgin, Mike; Vydula, Akshatha; Weinreb, Sandy; White, Scott; Woody, David; Yu, Sijie; Zentmeyer, Thomas; Zhang (张沛锦), Peijin |
| Source: |
Astrophysical Journal, 997(2), 311, (2026-02-01) |
| Publisher Information: |
American Astronomical Society |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Collection: |
Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) |
| Subject Terms: |
Gravitational waves; Neutron stars; Radio astronomy; Radio transient sources |
| Description: |
We report on a search for prompt, low-frequency radio emission from the gravitational-wave (GW) merger S250206dm using the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA). Early alerts favored a neutron-star-containing merger, making this a compelling target. Motivated by theoretical predictions of coherent radio bursts from mergers involving a neutron star, we utilized the OVRO-LWA Time Machine system to analyze voltage data recorded around the time of the event. Time Machine is a two-stage voltage buffer and processing pipeline that continuously buffers raw data from all antennas across the array’s nearly full-hemisphere instantaneous field of view, enabling retrospective beamforming, dedispersion, and fast-transient candidate identification. For this event, we analyzed a 30 minute interval beginning 3.5 minutes after the merger, which included 2 minutes of pre-alert data recovered by the ring buffer. We searched the 50% localization probability region with millisecond time resolution in the 69–86 MHz frequency band. No radio counterpart was detected above a 7 σ fluence detection threshold of ∼150 Jy ms. Using Bayesian analysis, we place a 95% confidence upper limit on the source luminosity of L 95 = 4 × 10 41 erg s −1 . These constraints start to probe the bright end of the coherent-emission parameter space predicted by jet–interstellar medium shock processes, magnetar and blitzar-like mechanisms, and recent simulation-based scenarios for neutron-star-containing mergers. This study presents the first sensitive, large-area, millisecond-timescale search for prompt low-frequency radio emission from a GW merger with the OVRO-LWA, establishing a framework in which about 10 additional events will yield stringent population-level constraints. ; © 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence . Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the ... |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
https://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:2512.18543; https://authors.library.caltech.edu/communities/caltechauthors/ |
| DOI: |
10.3847/1538-4357/ae2ea3 |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae2ea3 |
| Rights: |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess ; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International ; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.9C102EC |
| Database: |
BASE |