Insight-HXMT observations of the first binary neutron star merger GW170817
Creators: name: Li, TiPei
name: Xiong, ShaoLin
name: Zhang, ShuangNan
name: Lu, FangJun
name: Song, LiMing
name: Cao, XueLei
name: Chang, Zhi
name: Chen, Gang
name: Chen, Li
name: Chen, TianXiang
name: Chen, Yong
name: Chen, YiBao
name: Chen, YuPeng
name: Cui, Wei
name: Cui, WeiWei
name: Deng, JingKang
name: Dong, YongWei
name: Du, YuanYuan
name: Fu, MinXue
name: Gao, GuanHua
name: Gao, He
name: Gao, Min
name: Ge, MingYu
name: Gu, YuDong
name: Guan, Ju
name: Guo, ChengCheng
name: Han, DaWei
name: Hu, Wei
name: Huang, Yue
name: Huo, Jia
name: Jia, ShuMei
name: Jiang, LuHua
name: Jiang, WeiChun
name: Jin, Jing
name: Jin, YongJie
name: Li, Bing
name: Li, ChengKui
name: Li, Gang
name: Li, MaoShun
name: Li, Wei
name: Li, Xian
name: Li, XiaoBo
name: Li, XuFang
name: Li, YanGuo
name: Li, ZiJian
name: Li, ZhengWei
name: Liang, XiaoHua
name: Liao, JinYuan
name: Liu, CongZhan
name: Liu, GuoQing
name: Liu, HongWei
name: Liu, ShaoZhen
name: Liu, XiaoJing
name: Liu, Yuan
name: Liu, YiNong
name: Lu, Bo
name: Lu, XueFeng
name: Luo, Tao
name: Ma, Xiang
name: Meng, Bin
name: Nang, Yi
name: Nie, JianYin
name: Ou, Ge
name: Qu, JinLu
name: Sai, Na
name: Sun, Liang
name: Tan, Yin
name: Tao, Lian
name: Tao, WenHui
name: Tuo, YouLi
name: Wang, GuoFeng
name: Wang, HuanYu
name: Wang, Juan
name: Wang, WenShuai
name: Wang, YuSa
name: Wen, XiangYang
name: Wu, BoBing
name: Wu, Mei
name: Xiao, GuangCheng
name: Xu, He
name: Xu, YuPeng
name: Yan, LinLi
name: Yang, JiaWei
name: Yang, Sheng
name: Yang, YanJi
name: Zhang, AiMei
name: Zhang, ChunLei
name: Zhang, ChengMo
name: Zhang, Fan
name: Zhang, HongMei
name: Zhang, Juan
name: Zhang, Qiang
name: Zhang, Shu
name: Zhang, Tong
name: Zhang, Wei
name: Zhang, WanChang
name: Zhang, WenZhao
name: Zhang, Yi
name: Zhang, Yue
name: Zhang, YiFei
name: Zhang, YongJie
name: Zhang, Zhao
name: Zhang, ZiLiang
name: Zhao, HaiSheng
name: Zhao, JianLing
name: Zhao, XiaoFan
name: Zheng, ShiJie
name: Zhu, Yue
name: Zhu, YuXuan
name: Zou, ChangLin
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Finding the electromagnetic (EM) counterpart of binary compact star merger, especially the binary neutron star (BNS) merger, is critically important for gravitational wave (GW) astronomy, cosmology and fundamental physics. On Aug. 17, 2017, Advanced LIGO and \textit{Fermi}/GBM independently triggered the first BNS merger, GW170817, and its high energy EM counterpart, GRB 170817A, respectively, resulting in a global observation campaign covering gamma-ray, X-ray, UV, optical, IR, radio as well as neutrinos. The High Energy X-ray telescope (HE) onboard \textit{Insight}-HXMT (Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope) is the unique high-energy gamma-ray telescope that monitored the entire GW localization area and especially the optical counterpart (SSS17a/AT2017gfo) with very large collection area ($\sim$1000 cm$^2$) and microsecond time resolution in 0.2-5 MeV. In addition, \textit{Insight}-HXMT quickly implemented a Target of Opportunity (ToO) observation to scan the GW localization area for potential X-ray emission from the GW source. Although it did not detect any significant high energy (0.2-5 MeV) radiation from GW170817, its observation helped to confirm the unexpected weak and soft nature of GRB 170817A. Meanwhile, \textit{Insight}-HXMT/HE provides one of the most stringent constraints (~10$^{-7}$ to 10$^{-6}$ erg/cm$^2$/s) for both GRB170817A and any other possible precursor or extended emissions in 0.2-5 MeV, which help us to better understand the properties of EM radiation from this BNS merger. Therefore the observation of \textit{Insight}-HXMT constitutes an important chapter in the full context of multi-wavelength and multi-messenger observation of this historical GW event.
description: accepted by Science China - Physics, Mechanics &amp; Astronomy. Planned to publish on Oct 17, but postponed due to a problem on pdf file