INTEGRAL Observations of Gravitational-Wave Counterparts & Future Perspectives: Searching for GBM Un-Triggered SGRB with PICsIT

Abstract

The X-ray/gamma-ray mission \emph{INTEGRAL} detected the short GRB170817A and demonstrated its association to a gravitational wave trigger, GW170817. This marks the first time a binary neutron star merger was detected by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration and that an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave event has been observed. GRB170817A was detected by the SPI-ACS on-board \emph{INTEGRAL} and the \emph{Fermi}/GBM instruments \( \sim 1.7\) s after the GW event. Following the prompt emission, \emph{INTEGRAL} performed pointed observations for 5.4 days. During this time the instruments provided stringent upper limits on any electromagnetic signal in the 3 keV to 8 MeV range. Interestingly, the GRB was found to be extremely subluminous.In light of these results from GRB170817A, we have begun analysis of soft gamma-ray data (\(200 \textrm{ keV } - 2.6 \textrm{ MeV }\)) from \emph{INTEGRAL}/PICsIT. With this wide field-of-view instrument, we have begun searching for untriggered SGRBs reported by \emph{Fermi}/GBM as well as preparing for real-time analysis during future LIGO-Virgo observing runs.