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A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF DETECTABILITY AND CONTAMINATION IN DEEP RAPID OPTICAL SEARCHES FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVE COUNTERPARTS

  • Authors: P. S. Cowperthwaite and E. Berger

2015 The Astrophysical Journal 814 25.

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 6.

Probability density of kilonovae as a function of the change in brightness between the first and second observations (Δm21) vs. the brightness in the second observation (m2) for observing Strategies 1 and 3. The hatched region indicates the 2σ photometric error for DECam for an exposure time necessary to achieve the required depth. Points within this region will not exhibit a statistically significant change in magnitude for detection. The fraction of sources brighter than the detection limit in all three observations (DF) and the fraction of sources within the hatched region (missed) are indicated at the bottom of each panel. We find that the seemingly beneficial initial rapid cadence of Strategy 3 on a ∼3 hr baseline actually results in a large fraction of brightenings being undetectable.

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