LBT in the era of electromagnetic follow-up of gravitational sources

Abstract

The era of gravitational astronomy has started on September 14, 2015 with the first detection of gravitational waves (GW) by the aLIGO and AdVirgo collaboration.A wealth of additional information on the GW source nature would be provided by its electromagnetic (EM) counterpart, expected to be faint and/or rapidly fading. Wide-field survey telescopes will play a crucial role in the detection of the EM counterpart candidates. Long-term photometry and spectroscopy of detected transients with sensitive telescopes will further characterize each candidate, ultimately confirming the true EM counterpart. Indeed, LBT with its large size, instruments sensitivity and unique "binocular" configuration (i.e. acquire photometry and spectroscopy and/or one optical and one NIR band simultaneously) can play a crucial role in the identification of the EM counterpart of the GW signal. The Italian GRAwitational Wave INAF TeAm (GRAWITA) is participating in a collaborative world wide effort to detect the EM counterparts of GW events. Since May 2015,the team is working to make possible a prompt observational campaign to GW alert and follow-up activity with multiwavelength observing facilities, and in collaboration with ground and space based high energies facilities.