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Golovin, D. V.

Publications and source records attributed to Golovin, D. V..

The Interplanetary Network Response to LIGO GW150914

We have performed a blind search for a gamma-ray transient of arbitrary duration and energy spectrum around the time of the LIGO gravitational-wave event GW150914 with the six-spacecraft interplanetary network (IPN). Four gamma-ray bursts were detected between 30 hr prior to the event and 6.1 hr after it, but none could convincingly be associated with GW150914. No other transients were detected down to limiting 15-150 keV fluences of roughly 5 x 10(exp -8) -5 x 10(exp -7) erg cm(exp -2). We discuss the search strategies and temporal coverage of the IPN on the day of the event and compare the spatial coverage to the region where GW150914 originated. We also report the negative result of a targeted search for the Fermi-GBM event reported in conjunction with GW150914.

gamma-ray burst general – gravitational waves↗

The Interplanetary Network Supplement to the Fermi Gbm Catalog of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts

We present Interplanetary Network (IPN) data for the gamma-ray bursts in the first Fermi Gamma-Ray BurstMonitor (GBM) catalog. Of the 491 bursts in that catalog, covering 2008 July 12 to 2010 July 11, 427 wereobserved by at least one other instrument in the nine-spacecraft IPN. Of the 427, the localizations of 149 could beimproved by arrival time analysis (or triangulation). For any given burst observed by the GBM and one otherdistant spacecraft, triangulation gives an annulus of possible arrival directions whose half-width varies betweenabout 0. 4 and 32, depending on the intensity, time history, and arrival direction of the burst, as well as the distancebetween the spacecraft. We find that the IPN localizations intersect the 1 GBM error circles in only 52 of thecases, if no systematic uncertainty is assumed for the latter. If a 6 systematic uncertainty is assumed and added inquadrature, the two localization samples agree about 87 of the time, as would be expected. If we then multiply theresulting error radii by a factor of three, the two samples agree in slightly over 98 of the cases, providing a goodestimate of the GBM 3 error radius. The IPN 3 error boxes have areas between about 1 arcmin2 and 110 deg2,and are, on the average, a factor of 180 smaller than the corresponding GBM localizations. We identify two burstsin the IPNGBM sample that did not appear in the GBM catalog. In one case, the GBM triggered on a terrestrialgamma flash, and in the other, its origin was given as uncertain. We also discuss the sensitivity and calibration ofthe IPN.

INTERPLANET↗

Global Maps of Lunar Neutron Fluxes from the LEND Instrument

The latest neutron spectrometer measurements with the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) are presented. It covers more than 1 year of mapping phase starting on 15 September 2009. In our analyses we have created global maps showing regional variations in the flux of thermal (energy range < 0.015 eV) and fast neutrons (>0.5 MeV), and compared these fluxes to variances in soil elemental composition, and with previous results obtained by the Lunar Prospector Neutron Spectrometer (LPNS). We also processed data from LEND collimated detectors and derived a value for the collimated signal of epithermal neutrons based on the comparative analysis with the LEND omnidirectional detectors. Finally, we have compared our final (after the data reduction) global epithermal neutron map with LPNS data.

Epithermal neutrons↗

Testing Lunar Permanently Shadowed Regions for Water Ice: LEND Results from LRO

We use measurements from the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) collimated sensors during more than one year of the mapping phase of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission to make estimates of the epithermal neutron flux within known large Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs). These are compared with the local neutron background measured outside PSRs in sunlit regions. Individual and collective analyses of PSR properties have been performed. Only three large PSRs, Shoemaker and Cabeus in the south and Rozhdestvensky U in the north, have been found to manifest significant neutron suppression. All other PSRs have much smaller suppression, only a few percent, if at all. Some even display an excess of neutron emission in comparison to the sunlit vicinity around them. Testing PSRs collectively, we have not found any average suppression for them. Only the group of 18 large PSRs, with area >200 square kilometers, show a marginal effect of small average suppression, approx. 2%, with low statistical confidence. An approx. 2% suppression corresponds to approx. 125 ppm of hydrogen taking into account the global neutron suppression near the lunar poles and assuming a homogeneous H distribution in depth in the regolith. This means that all PSRs, except those in Shoemaker, Cabeus and Rozhdestvensky U craters, do not contain any significant amount of hydrogen in comparison with sunlit areas around them at the same latitude.

LEND↗

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Observations with the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND): Neutron Suppression Regions (NSR) and Polar Hydrogen

Orbital detection of neutrons has become the dominant remote sensing technique for detecting and inferring H concentrations and its spatial distribution beneath planetary surfaces [Lawrence et al, (2010) Icarus, 205, pp. 195-209, Mitrofanov et al (2007) Science 297(5578), 78-81]. Indications for the presence of localized and relatively high water content was provided by LRO and LCROSS. LEND identified Cabeus, as the most promising LCROSS impact site [Mitrofanov I. et al. (2010) Science, 330, 483], and instruments onboard LRO and LCROSS have measured signatures of water, H2 and other volatiles in the impact plume [Colaprete A. et al. (2010) Science, 339,463, Gladstone R. et al. (2010) Science, 330, 472].

Chin, G.↗