Dougal Dobie (Swinburne University of Technology)

Colloquium: Radio Follow-up of Gravitational Wave Events

Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

The detection of gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from a neutron star merger, GW170817, heralded the dawn of a new age of astronomy - the multi-messenger era. In this talk, I will discuss follow-up of two landmark gravitational wave events - GW170817 and GW190814. Radio monitoring of GW170817 enabled tight constraints to be placed on the geometry and energetics of the merger, while VLBI imaging helped improve the "standard siren" measurement of the Hubble constant. No counterpart to GW190814 has been detected, but we have carried out 8 follow-up observations with ASKAP, covering ~90% of the localisation region. We have used these observations to carry out the most sensitive widefield radio transient survey to-date, and I will also present preliminary results from this search. I will outline prospects for radio follow-up of future gravitational wave events including the vital contributions that radio observations can make to the broader multi-messenger effort, and quantitative estimates for the detectability of events with current and future facilities.