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  • AGILE OBSERVATIONS OF THE G...
    Tavani, M.; Pittori, C.; Verrecchia, F.; Bulgarelli, A.; Giuliani, A.; Donnarumma, I.; Argan, A.; Trois, A.; Lucarelli, F.; Marisaldi, M.; Monte, E. Del; Evangelista, Y.; Fioretti, V.; Zoli, A.; Piano, G.; Munar-Adrover, P.; Antonelli, L. A.; Barbiellini, G.; Caraveo, P.; Cattaneo, P. W.; Costa, E.; Feroci, M.; Ferrari, A.; Longo, F.; Mereghetti, S.; Minervini, G.; Morselli, A.; Pacciani, L.; Pellizzoni, A.; Picozza, P.; Pilia, M.; Rappoldi, A.; Sabatini, S.; Vercellone, S.; Vittorini, V.; Giommi, P.; Colafrancesco, S.; Cardillo, M.; Galli, M.; Fuschino, F.

    Astrophysical journal. Letters, 07/2016, Letnik: 825, Številka: 1
    Journal Article

    ABSTRACT We report the results of an extensive search through the AGILE data for a gamma-ray counterpart to the LIGO gravitational-wave (GW) event GW150914. Currently in spinning mode, AGILE has the potential of cover 80% of the sky with its gamma-ray instrument, more than 100 times a day. It turns out that AGILE came within a minute of the event time of observing the accessible GW150914 localization region. Interestingly, the gamma-ray detector exposed ∼65% of this region during the 100 s time intervals centered at −100 and +300 s from the event time. We determine a 2 flux upper limit in the band 50 MeV-10 GeV, UL = 1.9 × 10−8 erg cm−2 s−1, obtained ∼300 s after the event. The timing of this measurement is the fastest ever obtained for GW150914, and significantly constrains the electromagnetic emission of a possible high-energy counterpart. We also carried out a search for a gamma-ray precursor and delayed emission over five timescales ranging from minutes to days: in particular, we obtained an optimal exposure during the interval −150/−30 s. In all these observations, we do not detect a significant signal associated with GW150914. We do not reveal the weak transient source reported by Fermi-GBM 0.4 s after the event time. However, even though a gamma-ray counterpart of the GW150914 event was not detected, the prospects for future AGILE observations of GW sources are decidedly promising.