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WITH THE DISCOVERY OF THE FIRST BINARY NEUTRON STAR (BNS) MERGER (GW170817) AND ITS ELECTROMAGNETIC COUNTERPART GRB 170817A AND THE SUBSEQUENT KILONOVA AND AFTERGLOW WE HAVE FULLY ENTERED THE MULTI-MESSENGER ERA OF ASTROPHYSICS. USING THE BURST AND TRANSIENT SOURCE EXPERIMENT (BATSE) AND SWIFT-BURST ALERT TELESCOPE (BAT) CATALOG OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (GRBS) WE PROPOSE TO SEARCH FOR EVENTS THAT ARE SIMILAR TO GRB 170817A THE ONLY CONFIRMED BNS COUNTERPART TO DATE. WE WILL INVESTIGATE PAST GRBS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE PHYSICS THAT LINKS BNS MERGERS TO SHORT GRBS. GRB 170817A WAS A RELATIVELY FAINT BUT ORDINARY SHORT GRB IN THE FERMI-GBM SAMPLE. BECAUSE OF THE HIGH EFFECTIVE AREA BATSE IS BETTER SUITED TO IDENTIFY FAINT GRBS THAN ANY OTHER INSTRUMENT. SWIFT GRBS WHILE FEWER IN NUMBER HAVE THE PROMISE OF ADDING INVALUABLE AFTERGLOW INFORMATION. SINCE FERMI-GBM AND SWIFT OVERLAP JOINT DETECTION OF TWINS OF GRB 170817A WILL BE PARTICULARLY REVEALING. WE PRESENT AN ITERATIVE METHOD TO IDENTIFY GRBS SIMILAR TO GRB 170817A. OUR INITIAL EXPLORATORY SEARCHES REVEAL CONVINCING CANDIDATES FOR ALL THREE INSTRUMENTS EFFECTIVELY GUARANTEEING EXCITING RESULTS. WE WILL DERIVE RATES TRENDS AMONG THE TWIN GRBS PROVIDE A DETAILED ANALYSIS AND TEST CURRENT MODELS FOR BNS MERGER COUNTERPARTS.

$57,576FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

The University Of Alabama In Huntsville

Investigators

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