NO CORRELATION BETWEEN FERMI GBM SIGNAL AND GW150914

Image: Merging black holes. Credit: NASA

Recently it has been suggested that electromagnetic signals detected by Fermi GBM could be associated with the merger of the two black holes detected by LIGO (GW150914).


In a recent paper (Lyutikov 2016) the author assesses that the physical constraints required by the association of the Fermi GBM signal contemporaneous with GW150914 - radiative power of 10⁴⁹ erg s⁻¹, and corresponding magnetic fields on the black hole of the order of 10¹² Gauss - are astrophysically highly implausible.

Combined with the relatively high random probability of coincidence of 0.22 percents, he concludes that the electromagnetic signal is likely unrelated to the BH merger.

• Lyutikov 2016 (preprint) - Fermi GBM signal contemporaneous with GW150914 - an unlikely association (arXiv)