A Deep CFHT Optical Search for a Counterpart to the Possible Neutron Star -- Black Hole Merger GW190814

Understand

We present a wide-field optical imaging search for electromagnetic counterparts to the likely neutron star - black hole (NS-BH) merger GW190814/S190814bv.

• This compact binary merger was detected through gravitational waves by the LIGO/Virgo interferometers, with masses suggestive of a NS-BH merger.
• We imaged the LIGO/Virgo localization region using the MegaCam instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.
• We describe our hybrid observing strategy of both tiling and galaxy-targeted observations, as well as our image differencing and transient detection pipeline.