Search for Coincident Gravitational-wave and Fast Radio Burst Events from 4-OGC and the First CHIME/FRB Catalog

Abstract

Advanced LIGO and Virgo have reported 90 confident gravitational-wave (GW) observations from compact-binary coalescences from their three observation runs. In addition, numerous subthreshold GW candidates have been identified. Binary neutron star (BNS) mergers can produce GWs and short-gamma-ray bursts, as confirmed by GW170817/GRB 170817A. There may be electromagnetic counterparts recorded in archival observations associated with subthreshold GW candidates. The CHIME/FRB Collaboration has reported the first large sample of fast radio bursts (FRBs), millisecond radio transients detected up to cosmological distances; a fraction of these may be associated with BNS mergers. This work searches for coincident GWs and FRBs from BNS mergers using candidates from the fourth Open Gravitational-wave Catalog and the first CHIME/FRB catalog. We use a ranking statistic for GW/FRB association that combines the GW detection statistic with the odds of temporal and spatial association. We analyze GW candidates and nonrepeating FRBs from 2019 April 1 to 2019 July 1, when both the Advanced LIGO/Virgo GW detectors and the CHIME radio telescope were observing. The most significant coincident candidate has a false alarm rate of 0.29 per observation time, which is consistent with a null observation. The null results imply, at most, – of FRBs are produced promptly from the BNS mergers.