Optimizing Prompt Radio Counterpart Searches for Gravitational-Wave Events with the Deep Synoptic Array
Abstract
Prompt millisecond-duration coherent radio emission is proposed as a counterpart to neutron-star-containing compact mergers, produced before, during, or shortly after coalescence. Its detection would probe the plasma environment, magnetic fields, remnant evolution, and emission physics of these mergers. At GHz frequencies, dispersive delays can range from fractions of a second to several seconds, requiring the telescope to be on source before or soon after coalescence. Negative- or low-latency alerts, rapid response, and optimized pointing under uncertain, evolving localizations are therefore essential. We present a framework for prompt gravitational-wave follow-up with the upcoming Deep Synoptic Array (DSA), a sensitive, fast-slewing, wide-field GHz radio array. We simulate low-latency localization sequences and embed them in a follow-up environment with elevation, field-of-view, and slew constraints. We compare a reinforcement-learning pointing policy with a baseline that slews toward the highest-probability accessible region at each step. This peak-tracking rule is a strong, interpretable baseline for initial deployment, while the learned policy provides a complementary strategy for a subset of broad, multimodal, or arc-shaped localizations. At a random merger time, 37% of events are observable above 20∘ elevation; among these, ∼90% of BNS events are successfully reached and tracked using zero-noise localization maps, decreasing to ∼75% with Gaussian-noise maps. We validate the optimized pointing trajectories on prototype DSA antennas. DSA follow-up can reach a fluence sensitivity of ∼20 mJy ms over a representative 700-1025 MHz sub-band, probing millisecond bursts with luminosities of approximately 1038 to 1039 erg s−1, at or below the lower end of several coherent-emission predictions for neutron-star mergers.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{kosogorov2026optimizing,
title = {{Optimizing Prompt Radio Counterpart Searches for Gravitational-Wave Events with the Deep Synoptic Array}},
author = {Nikita Kosogorov and Max Melching and Gregg Hallinan and Jonah Kanner and Alan J. Weinstein and Kevin Lacker and Vikram Ravi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.40958},
eprint = {2610.40958},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40958},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Optimizing Prompt Radio Counterpart Searches for Gravitational-Wave Events with the Deep Synoptic Array
AU - Nikita Kosogorov
AU - Max Melching
AU - Gregg Hallinan
AU - Jonah Kanner
AU - Alan J. Weinstein
AU - Kevin Lacker
AU - Vikram Ravi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.40958
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40958
AB - Prompt millisecond-duration coherent radio emission is proposed as a counterpart to neutron-star-containing compact mergers, produced before, during, or shortly after coalescence. Its detection would probe the plasma environment, magnetic fields, remnant evolution, and emission physics of these mergers. At GHz frequencies, dispersive delays can range from fractions of a second to several seconds, requiring the telescope to be on source before or soon after coalescence. Negative- or low-latency alerts, rapid response, and optimized pointing under uncertain, evolving localizations are therefore essential. We present a framework for prompt gravitational-wave follow-up with the upcoming Deep Synoptic Array (DSA), a sensitive, fast-slewing, wide-field GHz radio array. We simulate low-latency localization sequences and embed them in a follow-up environment with elevation, field-of-view, and slew constraints. We compare a reinforcement-learning pointing policy with a baseline that slews toward the highest-probability accessible region at each step. This peak-tracking rule is a strong, interpretable baseline for initial deployment, while the learned policy provides a complementary strategy for a subset of broad, multimodal, or arc-shaped localizations. At a random merger time, 37% of events are observable above 20^∘ elevation; among these, ∼90% of BNS events are successfully reached and tracked using zero-noise localization maps, decreasing to ∼75% with Gaussian-noise maps. We validate the optimized pointing trajectories on prototype DSA antennas. DSA follow-up can reach a fluence sensitivity of ∼20 mJy ms over a representative 700-1025 MHz sub-band, probing millisecond bursts with luminosities of approximately 10^38 to 10^39 erg s^−1, at or below the lower end of several coherent-emission predictions for neutron-star mergers.
ER -