Speaker
Description
On August 17, 2017, GW170817 showed the merger of a double neutron star system. Model-independent data analysis by butterfly-matched filtering, a novel time-symmetric data analysis method with sensitivity on par with CBC, reveals a continuation in GW170817B starting 0.92±0.08 s after final coalescence. It signals the birth of the central engine of GRB170817A significant at 5.5 σ (van Putten & Della Valle, 2023, A&A, 669, A36), emitting 3.5% M-Solar c2 in gravitational radiation. GRB170817A is hereby identified with black hole spin-down following the delayed gravitational collapse of the initial post-merger remnant - a hypermassive neutron star. GW170817B provides the first evidence of Kerr black holes as objects in Nature by GW-calorimetry (van Putten & Levinson, 2002, Science, 295 1874).