5 years ago

GPU-accelerated broadband analysis of multi-messenger GRB light curves.

Maurice H.P.M. van Putten

High-frequency multi-messenger observations provide a powerful probe of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), pioneered by {\em BeppoSAX} in gamma-rays and LIGO-Virgo in gravitational waves. Identifying the central engines - magnetars or black holes - also promises to improve on GRBs as probes of cosmological evolution. THESEUS' design is ideally suited to pursue both science objectives. Here, we present a general-purpose {\em graphics processor units} (GPU)-accelerated broadband search algorithm for long duration ascending and descending chirps, post-merger or from core-collapse of massive stars, in electromagnetic and gravitational radiation. It implements butterfly filtering using banks of up to 8 million templates of 1 second duration at over one million correlations per second by heterogeneous computing using a dozen high-end GPUs. We demonstrate its application with the identification of broadband Kolmogorov spectra in long GRBs and the long duration ascending chirp in the merger GW170817. The first shows a noticeable absence of a high frequency bump, otherwise expected from newly formed magnetar central engines. The second illustrates the need for deep searches to identify GRB central engines in descending chirps in gravitational waves, post-merger or from nearby energetic core-collapse supernovae. A future catalogue of THESEUS' GRBs covering a broad range of redshifts may probe the nature of the cosmological vacuum and establish the de Sitter limit as a turning point in cosmological evolution.

Publisher URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/1802.01685

DOI: arXiv:1802.01685v1

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.