- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Searches for postmerger gravitational waves with CoCoA: Sensitivity projections across large template banks for current and next-generation detectors

Tanazza Khanam1,2,*, Alessandra Corsi3,†, Robert Coyne4, and Michael St. Pierre4

  • *Contact author: tk73@rice.edu
  • †Contact author: acorsi2@jh.edu
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 113, 103034 – Published 22 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/yc6h-g481

Abstract

The multimessenger detection of the binary neutron star (NS) merger GW170817 has revolutionized the field of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy. However, several important questions remain to be answered. One of these is the nature of the compact remnant leftover by GW170817 (short- or long-lived NS versus black hole). A key goal going forward is to understand the diversity of NS-NS merger remnants, and how such diversity maps onto their viability as gamma-ray burst (GRB) central engines. Here, we present a study aimed at assessing the sensitivity of triggered searches for intermediate-duration, postmerger GWs powered by long-lived GRB remnants using networks of current and future ground-based GW detectors and the cross-orrelation algorithm (CoCoA). We develop a python-based framework to efficiently estimate CoCoA distance horizons for a broad range of postmerger secular bar-mode waveforms and for different GW detector networks. This framework can be used to identify the most promising regions of parameter space in which to concentrate search efforts, helping to design future search strategies to optimally balance search sensitivity and related parameter space gridding schema against computational cost.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (71)

  1. LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations, GW170817: Observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 161101 (2017).
  2. LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations, Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L12 (2017).
  3. LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations, Gravitational waves and gamma-rays from a binary neutron star merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L13 (2017).
  4. R. Chornock et al., The electromagnetic counterpart of the binary neutron star merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. IV. Detection of near-infrared signatures of r-process nucleosynthesis with Gemini-South, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L19 (2017).
  5. P. S. Cowperthwaite et al., The electromagnetic counterpart of the binary neutron star merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. II. UV optical, and near-infrared light curves and comparison to kilonova models, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L17 (2017).
  6. M. R. Drout et al., Light curves of the neutron star merger GW170817/SSS17a: Implications for r-process nucleosynthesis, Science 358, 1570 (2017).
  7. P. A. Evans et al., Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova, Science 358, 1565 (2017).
  8. M. M. Kasliwal et al., Illuminating gravitational waves: A concordant picture of photons from a neutron star merger, Science 358, 1559 (2017).
  9. M. Nicholl et al., The electromagnetic counterpart of the binary neutron star merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. III. Optical and UV spectra of a blue kilonova from fast polar ejecta, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L18 (2017).
  10. E. Pian et al., Spectroscopic identification of r-process nucleosynthesis in a double neutron-star merger, Nature (London) 551, 67 (2017).
  11. S. J. Smartt et al., A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source, Nature (London) 551, 75 (2017).
  12. M. Soares-Santos et al. (Dark Energy Survey, and Dark Energy Camera GW-EM Collaborations), The electromagnetic counterpart of the binary neutron star merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. I. Discovery of the optical counterpart using the dark energy camera, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L16 (2017).
  13. N. R. Tanvir et al., The emergence of a Lanthanide-rich kilonova following the merger of two neutron stars, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L27 (2017).
  14. Stefano Valenti, David J. Sand, Sheng Yang, Enrico Cappellaro, Leonardo Tartaglia, Alessandra Corsi, Saurabh W. Jha, Daniel E. Reichart, Joshua Haislip, and Vladimir Kouprianov, The discovery of the electromagnetic counterpart of GW170817: Kilonova AT 2017gfo/DLT17ck, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L24 (2017).
  15. V. A. Villar, J. Guillochon, E. Berger, B. D. Metzger, P. S. Cowperthwaite, M. Nicholl, K. D. Alexander, P. K. Blanchard, R. Chornock, T. Eftekhari, W. Fong, R. Margutti, and P. K. G. Williams, The combined ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared light curves of the kilonova associated with the binary neutron star merger GW170817: Unified data set, analytic models, and physical implications, Astrophys. J. Lett. 851, L21 (2017).
  16. K. D. Alexander et al., The electromagnetic counterpart of the binary neutron star merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. VI. Radio constraints on a relativistic jet and predictions for Late-time emission from the kilonova ejecta, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L21 (2017).
  17. Daryl Haggard, Melania Nynka, John J. Ruan, Vicky Kalogera, S. Bradley Cenko, Phil Evans, and Jamie A. Kennea, A deep chandra X-ray study of neutron star coalescence GW170817, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L25 (2017).
  18. G. Hallinan et al., A radio counterpart to a neutron star merger, Science 358, 1579 (2017).
  19. R. Margutti et al., The electromagnetic counterpart of the binary neutron star merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. V. Rising X-ray emission from an off-axis jet, Astrophys. J. Lett. 848, L20 (2017).
  20. R. Margutti et al., The binary neutron star event LIGO/Virgo GW170817 160 days after merger: Synchrotron emission across the electromagnetic spectrum, Astrophys. J. Lett. 856, L18 (2018).
  21. K. P. Mooley, A. T. Deller, O. Gottlieb, E. Nakar, G. Hallinan, S. Bourke, D. A. Frail, A. Horesh, A. Corsi, and K. Hotokezaka, Superluminal motion of a relativistic jet in the neutron-star merger GW170817, Nature (London) 561, 355 (2018).
  22. K. P. Mooley et al., A mildly relativistic wide-angle outflow in the neutron-star merger event GW170817, Nature (London) 554, 207 (2018).
  23. E. Troja et al., The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817, Nature (London) 551, 71 (2017).
  24. Alessandra Corsi, Lisa Barsotti, Emanuele Berti, Matthew Evans, Ish Gupta et al., Multi-messenger astrophysics of black holes and neutron stars as probed by ground-based gravitational wave detectors: From present to future, Front. Astron. Space Sci. 11, 1386748 (2024).
  25. LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations, Search for gravitational waves from a Long-lived remnant of the binary neutron star merger GW170817, Astrophys. J. 875, 160 (2019).
  26. LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, Search for post-merger gravitational waves from the remnant of the binary neutron star merger GW170817, Astrophys. J. Lett. 851, L16 (2017).
  27. LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations, All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in the first Advanced LIGO observing run, Classical Quantum Gravity 35, 065009 (2018).
  28. LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, All-sky search for long-duration gravitational-wave bursts in the third Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo run, Phys. Rev. D 104, 102001 (2021).
  29. The LIGO Scientific, the Virgo, and the KAGRA Collaborations, All-sky search for long-duration gravitational-wave transients in the first part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run, arXiv:2507.12282.
  30. Ben Margalit and Brian D. Metzger, Constraining the maximum mass of neutron stars from multi-messenger observations of GW170817, Astrophys. J. Lett. 850, L19 (2017).
  31. Brian D. Metzger, Kilonovae, Living Rev. Relativity 23, 1 (2019).
  32. Nikhil Sarin and Paul D. Lasky, The evolution of binary neutron star post-merger remnants: A review, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 53, 59 (2021).
  33. M. G. Bernardini, R. Margutti, J. Mao, E. Zaninoni, and G. Chincarini, The X-ray light curve of gamma-ray bursts: Clues to the central engine, Astron. Astrophys. 539, A3 (2012).
  34. B. P. Gompertz, P. T. O’Brien, G. A. Wynn, and A. Rowlinson, Can magnetar spin-down power extended emission in some short GRBs?, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 431, 1745 (2013).
  35. J. A. Nousek, C. Kouveliotou, D. Grupe, K. L. Page, J. Granot et al., Evidence for a canonical gamma-ray burst afterglow light curve in the swift XRT data, Astrophys. J. 642, 389 (2006).
  36. Vikram Ravi and Paul D. Lasky, The birth of black holes: Neutron star collapse times, gamma-ray bursts and fast radio bursts, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 441, 2433 (2014).
  37. A. Rowlinson, P. T. O’Brien, B. D. Metzger, N. R. Tanvir, and A. J. Levan, Signatures of magnetar central engines in short GRB light curves, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 430, 1061 (2013).
  38. R. L. C. Starling, P. T. O’Brien, R. Willingale, K. L. Page, J. P. Osborne et al., Swift captures the spectrally evolving prompt emission of GRB070616, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 384, 504 (2008).
  39. S. X. Yi, Z. G. Dai, X. F. Wu, and F. Y. Wang, X-ray afterglow plateaus of long gamma-ray bursts: Further evidence for millisecond magnetars, Astrophys. J. Lett. 792, L8 (2014).
  40. B. Zhang, Y. Z. Fan, J. Dyks, S. Kobayashi, P. Mészáros, D. N. Burrows, J. A. Nousek, and N. Gehrels, Physical processes shaping gamma-ray burst X-ray afterglow light curves: Theoretical implications from the swift X-ray telescope observations, Astrophys. J. 642, 354 (2006).
  41. Alessandra Corsi and Peter Mészáros, Gamma-ray burst afterglow plateaus and gravitational waves, Classical Quantum Gravity 26, 204016 (2009).
  42. B. P. Gompertz, P. T. O’Brien, and G. A. Wynn, Magnetar powered GRBs: Explaining the extended emission and X-ray plateau of short GRB light curves, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 438, 240 (2014).
  43. Yingze Shan, Xiaoxuan Liu, Xing Yang, Haoyu Yuan, and Houjun Lü, GRB 210323A: Signature of long-lasting lifetime of supra-massive magnetar as the central engine from the merger of binary neutron star, Res. Astron. Astrophys. 24, 085003 (2024).
  44. Ben Margalit and Brian D. Metzger, The multi-messenger matrix: The future of neutron star merger constraints on the nuclear equation of state, Astrophys. J. Lett. 880, L15 (2019).
  45. Nikhil Sarin, Conor M. B. Omand, Ben Margalit, and David I. Jones, On the diversity of magnetar-driven kilonovae, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 516, 4949 (2022).
  46. Shao-Ze Li, Yun-Wei Yu, He Gao, and Lin Lan, Double neutron star mergers: Are late-time radio signals overestimated?, Astrophys. J. 961, 201 (2024).
  47. Ehud Nakar and Tsvi Piran, Detectable radio flares following gravitational waves from mergers of binary neutron stars, Nature (London) 478, 82 (2011).
  48. LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations, All-sky search for long-duration gravitational-wave transients in the second Advanced LIGO observing run, Phys. Rev. D 99, 104033 (2019).
  49. Robert Coyne, Alessandra Corsi, and Benjamin J. Owen, Cross-correlation method for intermediate-duration gravitational wave searches associated with gamma-ray bursts, Phys. Rev. D 93, 104059 (2016).
  50. Dong Lai and Stuart L. Shapiro, Gravitational radiation from rapidly rotating nascent neutron stars, Astrophys. J. 442, 259 (1995).
  51. Eric Sowell, Alessandra Corsi, and Robert Coyne, Multiwaveform cross-correlation search method for intermediate-duration gravitational waves from gamma-ray bursts, Phys. Rev. D 100, 124041 (2019).
  52. Report of the LSC post-O5 study group, https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-T2200287/public (2024).
  53. Marica Branchesi, Michele Maggiore, David Alonso, Charles Badger, Biswajit Banerjee et al., Science with the Einstein telescope: A comparison of different designs, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07 (2023) 068.
  54. Matthew Evans, Alessandra Corsi, Chaitanya Afle, Alena Ananyeva, K. G. Arun et al., Cosmic explorer: A submission to the NSF MPSAC ngGW subcommittee, arXiv:2306.13745.
  55. Sanjeev Dhurandhar, Badri Krishnan, Himan Mukhopadhyay, and John T. Whelan, Cross-correlation search for periodic gravitational waves, Phys. Rev. D 77, 082001 (2008).
  56. LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, All-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars using Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo O3 data, Phys. Rev. D 106, 102008 (2022).
  57. LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, All-sky search for short gravitational-wave bursts in the third Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo run, Phys. Rev. D 104, 122004 (2021).
  58. LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, All-sky search for short gravitational-wave bursts in the first part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run, Phys. Rev. D 112, 102005 (2025).
  59. Marek J. Szczepańczyk, Francesco Salemi, Sophie Bini, Tanmaya Mishra, Gabriele Vedovato et al., Search for gravitational-wave bursts in the third Advanced LIGO-Virgo run with coherent WaveBurst enhanced by machine learning, Phys. Rev. D 107, 062002 (2023).
  60. S. Bonazzola and E. Gourgoulhon, Gravitational waves from pulsars: Emission by the magnetic-field-induced distortion, Astron. Astrophys. 312, 675 (1996).
  61. Nils Andersson, A new class of unstable modes of rotating relativistic stars, Astrophys. J. 502, 708 (1998).
  62. Ricard Aguilera-Miret, Daniele Viganò, and Carlos Palenzuela, Universality of the turbulent magnetic field in hypermassive neutron stars produced by binary mergers, Astrophys. J. Lett. 926, L31 (2022).
  63. Carlos Palenzuela, Ricard Aguilera-Miret, Federico Carrasco, Riccardo Ciolfi, Jay Vijay Kalinani, Wolfgang Kastaun, Borja Miñano, and Daniele Viganò, Turbulent magnetic field amplification in binary neutron star mergers, Phys. Rev. D 106, 023013 (2022).
  64. https://www.nsf.gov/mps/phy/nggw/mpsac_nggw_subcommittee_report_2024-03-23.pdf (2024).
  65. LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA, Living Rev. Relativity 21, 3 (2018).
  66. Ish Gupta, Chaitanya Afle, K. G. Arun, Ananya Bandopadhyay, Masha Baryakhtar et al., Characterizing gravitational wave detector networks: From A♯ to cosmic explorer, Classical Quantum Gravity 41, 245001 (2024).
  67. Kara Merfeld and Alessandra Corsi, Probing binary neutron star merger ejecta and remnants with gravitational wave and radio observations, arXiv:2506.22835.
  68. Parth Patel, Alessandra Corsi, E. A. Huerta, Kara Merfeld, Victoria Tiki, Zilinghan Li, Tekin Bicer, Kyle Chard, Ryan Chard, Ian T. Foster, Maxime Gonthier, Valerie Hayot-Sasson, Hai Duc Nguyen, and Haochen Pan, Radio afterglow detection and AI-driven response (RADAR): A federated framework for gravitational-wave event follow-up, Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 280, 71 (2025).
  69. Ligo Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA S250818k: Properties of the low-significance GW compact binary merger candidate potentially associated with AT 2025ulz, GRB Coordinates Network 41437, 1 (2025).
  70. Ligo Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA S250912f: Identification of a GW compact binary merger candidate, GRB Coordinates Network 41810, 1 (2025).
  71. LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, Search for subsolar mass ultracompact binaries in Advanced LIGO’s second observing run, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 161102 (2019).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 113, 103034– Published 22 May, 2026
  • Received 26 November 2025
  • Accepted 12 March 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation