Optical follow-up of gravitational wave triggers with DECam during the first two LIGO/VIRGO observing runs. (arXiv:2001.06551v1 [astro-ph.IM])

Optical follow-up of gravitational wave triggers with DECam during the first two LIGO/VIRGO observing runs. (arXiv:2001.06551v1 [astro-ph.IM])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Herner_K/0/1/0/all/0/1">K. Herner</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Annis_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Annis</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Brout_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. Brout</a> (2 and 3), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Soares_Santos_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. Soares-Santos</a> (4 and 1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kessler_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. Kessler</a> (5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sako_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. Sako</a> (2), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Butler_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. Butler</a> (1 and 5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Doctor_Z/0/1/0/all/0/1">Z. Doctor</a> (5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Palmese_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. Palmese</a> (1 and 6), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Allam_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">S. Allam</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Tucker_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. L. Tucker</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sobreira_F/0/1/0/all/0/1">F. Sobreira</a> (7 and 8), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Yanny_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">B. Yanny</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Diehl_H/0/1/0/all/0/1">H. T. Diehl</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Frieman_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Frieman</a> (1 and 5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Glaeser_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">N. Glaeser</a> (1 and 9), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Garcia_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. Garcia</a> (4), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sherman_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">N. Sherman</a> (1 and 10), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Bechtol_K/0/1/0/all/0/1">K. Bechtol</a> (11 and 12), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Berger_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">E. Berger</a> (13), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Chen_H/0/1/0/all/0/1">H. Y. Chen</a> (13 and 5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Conselice_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">C. J. Conselice</a> (14), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Cook_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">E. Cook</a> (15), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Cowperthwaite_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">P. S. Cowperthwaite</a> (13), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Davis_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">T. M. Davis</a> (16), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Drlica_Wagner_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. Drlica-Wagner</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Farr_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">B. Farr</a> (5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Finley_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. Finley</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Foley_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. J. Foley</a> (17), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Garcia_Bellido_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Garcia-Bellido</a> (18), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Gill_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. S. S. Gill</a> (19), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Gruendl_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. A. Gruendl</a> (20 and 21), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Holz_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. E. Holz</a> (5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kuropatkin_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">N. Kuropatkin</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Lin_H/0/1/0/all/0/1">H. Lin</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Marriner_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Marriner</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Marshall_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. L. Marshall</a> (15), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Matheson_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">T. Matheson</a> (22), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Neilsen_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">E. Neilsen</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Paz_Chinchon_F/0/1/0/all/0/1">F. Paz-Chinchón</a> (20 and 21), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sauseda_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. Sauseda</a> (15), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Scolnic_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. Scolnic</a> (5), et al. (43 additional authors not shown)

Gravitational wave (GW) events detectable by LIGO and Virgo have several
possible progenitors, including black hole mergers, neutron star mergers, black
hole–neutron star mergers, supernovae, and cosmic string cusps. A subset of GW
events are expected to produce electromagnetic (EM) emission that, once
detected, will provide complementary information about their astrophysical
context. To that end, the LIGO–Virgo Collaboration (LVC) sends GW candidate
alerts to the astronomical community so that searches for their EM counterparts
can be pursued. The DESGW group, consisting of members of the Dark Energy
Survey (DES), the LVC, and other members of the astronomical community, uses
the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) to perform a search and discovery program for
optical signatures of LVC GW events. DESGW aims to use a sample of GW events as
standard sirens for cosmology. Due to the short decay timescale of the expected
EM counterparts and the need to quickly eliminate survey areas with no
counterpart candidates, it is critical to complete the initial analysis of each
night’s images as quickly as possible. We discuss our search area
determination, imaging pipeline, and candidate selection processes. We review
results from the DESGW program during the first two LIGO–Virgo observing
campaigns and introduce other science applications that our pipeline enables.

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