A temporally clustered gravitational wave pair and a Type IIb supernova
Abstract
Compact object mergers are generally expected long after the stellar collapse that forms their remnants. Here we report two marginal gravitational wave (GW) candidates, S190910d and S190910h, separated by 7.1 hr, whose three-dimensional localizations overlap at the position and distance of the Type IIb supernova SN 2019rsq. The GW pair lies in the extreme tail of the joint distribution of temporal separation and localization overlap, with a pairwise null probability of 7.6 × 10−5 under our Monte Carlo null test. Independent re-analyses recover both as signal-like candidates. Under a common-origin hypothesis, S190910h remains consistent with a low-mass compact binary with source-frame masses near 2.5 + 1.3 M⊙, whereas S190910d favours a strongly asymmetric ∼ 34 + 3 M⊙ system whose observed amplitude is compatible with the supernova distance. SN 2019rsq is a rapidly evolving stripped-envelope Type IIb explosion whose light curve is consistent with stellar collapse occurring near the GW activity. Although the supernova coincidence alone is not statistically rare, its timing and physical properties provide a stellar collapse anchor for the unusual GW pair. A fragmenting collapsar disk provides a plausible framework that can accommodate the component masses, hour-scale delays and supernova properties, raising the possibility that multiple compact object mergers can accompany a single stellar collapse episode.
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BibTeX
@misc{yang2026temporally,
title = {{A temporally clustered gravitational wave pair and a Type IIb supernova}},
author = {Sheng Yang and Ting-Wan Chen and Weichangfeng Guo and Brian D. Metzger and Yuhao Zhang and Amar Aryan and Juntao Bai and Thomas de Boer and Mattia Bulla and Enrico Cappellaro and Sunil Choudhary and He Gao and Mansi M. Kasliwal and Darshan Kumar and Cheng-Han Lai and Chien-Cheng Lin and Liang-Duan Liu and Gregory S. H. Paek and Jesper Sollerman and Richard J. Wainscoat and Zhi-Qiang You and Yun-Wei Yu and Jianping Yuan and Xing-Jiang Zhu and Zong-Hong Zhu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.00440},
eprint = {2611.00440},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.00440},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A temporally clustered gravitational wave pair and a Type IIb supernova
AU - Sheng Yang
AU - Ting-Wan Chen
AU - Weichangfeng Guo
AU - Brian D. Metzger
AU - Yuhao Zhang
AU - Amar Aryan
AU - Juntao Bai
AU - Thomas de Boer
AU - Mattia Bulla
AU - Enrico Cappellaro
AU - Sunil Choudhary
AU - He Gao
AU - Mansi M. Kasliwal
AU - Darshan Kumar
AU - Cheng-Han Lai
AU - Chien-Cheng Lin
AU - Liang-Duan Liu
AU - Gregory S. H. Paek
AU - Jesper Sollerman
AU - Richard J. Wainscoat
AU - Zhi-Qiang You
AU - Yun-Wei Yu
AU - Jianping Yuan
AU - Xing-Jiang Zhu
AU - Zong-Hong Zhu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.00440
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.00440
AB - Compact object mergers are generally expected long after the stellar collapse that forms their remnants. Here we report two marginal gravitational wave (GW) candidates, S190910d and S190910h, separated by 7.1 hr, whose three-dimensional localizations overlap at the position and distance of the Type IIb supernova SN 2019rsq. The GW pair lies in the extreme tail of the joint distribution of temporal separation and localization overlap, with a pairwise null probability of 7.6 × 10^−5 under our Monte Carlo null test. Independent re-analyses recover both as signal-like candidates. Under a common-origin hypothesis, S190910h remains consistent with a low-mass compact binary with source-frame masses near 2.5 + 1.3 M_⊙, whereas S190910d favours a strongly asymmetric ∼ 34 + 3 M_⊙ system whose observed amplitude is compatible with the supernova distance. SN 2019rsq is a rapidly evolving stripped-envelope Type IIb explosion whose light curve is consistent with stellar collapse occurring near the GW activity. Although the supernova coincidence alone is not statistically rare, its timing and physical properties provide a stellar collapse anchor for the unusual GW pair. A fragmenting collapsar disk provides a plausible framework that can accommodate the component masses, hour-scale delays and supernova properties, raising the possibility that multiple compact object mergers can accompany a single stellar collapse episode.
ER -