{
  "id": "2408.02534",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2024-08-05T15:04:08.000Z",
  "updated": "2024-08-05T15:04:08.000Z",
  "title": "Quantifying the coincidence between gravitational waves and fast radio bursts from neutron star--black hole mergers",
  "authors": [
    "Teagan A. Clarke",
    "Nikhil Sarin",
    "Eric J. Howell",
    "Paul D. Lasky",
    "Eric Thrane"
  ],
  "comment": "15 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables",
  "categories": [
    "astro-ph.HE",
    "gr-qc"
  ],
  "abstract": "Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious astrophysical transients whose origin and mechanism remain unclear. Compact object mergers may be a promising channel to produce some FRBs. Neutron star-black hole (NSBH) mergers could produce FRBs through mechanisms involving neutron star tidal disruption or magnetospheric disturbances. This could present an opportunity for multi-messenger gravitational-wave observations, providing new insight into the nature of FRBs and nuclear matter. However, some of the gravitational-wave signals may be marginal detections with signal-to-noise ratios < 8 or have large sky location and distance uncertainties, making it less straightforward to confidently associate an FRB with the gravitational-wave signal. One must therefore take care to avoid a false positive association. We demonstrate how to do this with simulated data. We calculate the posterior odds -- a measurement of our relative belief for a common versus unrelated origin of a coincident NSBH and FRB. We find that a coincident FRB+NSBH from a common source can yield a statistically significant posterior odds in a network with at least two observatories, but only if we require a coincidence in time and and sky location, rather than time alone. However, we find that for our model, we require a network signal-to-noise ratio greater than 10 to be confident in the common-source detection, when using a threshold of ln odds > 8. We suggest that a coincident NSBH+FRB detection could help distinguish between FRB engines by discriminating between disrupting and non-disrupting models.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2024-08-05T15:04:08.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "neutron star-black hole mergers",
      "fast radio bursts",
      "gravitational waves",
      "coincidence",
      "neutron star tidal disruption"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 15,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}