Where are my logic notes when I really need them!!
The error quadrilateral of the source of the GRB includes a little part of an arm of a nearby galaxy. LIGO, which has yet to detect ANY gravity waves AT ALL, noted that, as no gravity waves were detected from a binary merger in that arm at or about the same time, it "proves" that the source of the GRB definitely was not due to a binary merger. Apparently what passes for "proof" in physics these days would have a hard time passing for "idle speculation" or "non sequitur" in other sciences.
Okay, look at it another way. In its entire lifetime, no LIGO data have ever been received that would indicate that a binary merger's gravitational signal has occurred. (In fact no discernable or useful LIGO data have ever been returned, according to the researchers in describing this scientific treasure trove.) Therefore in the lifetime of the LIGO exercise, we can reasonably make several really interesting Scientific Conclusions, including:
1. NONE of the GRB's observed while LIGO has been operating can be attributed to binary mergers, leading to the conclusion that LIGO has apparently been wildly successful in suppressing binary mergers (but, unfortunately, not those pesky GRBs). This is an unexpected and wholly serendipitous science bonus, because LIGO was not actually designed to do this!
2. -or, GRB's might not be caused by binary mergers, possibly leading to speculation that there really are not any binary mergers. An even more out-of-the-box idea might be that GRB's are caused by some other unknown, possibly Dark, mechanism still unknown to Science and undetectable by LIGOs. In fact, it would not be illogical to conclude that, since LIGO has been "operational" (a loose term if there ever were one),
NOTHING whatsoever which has been observed to occur in the observable universe since LEGO came on-line (i.e., was plugged in to the mains) can be attributed to a binary merger.
3. Binary mergers create GRBs, but
it is the GRB's which suppress the operation of the LIGO! This would imply that GRB's arrive continuously, as LIGO detection appears to have been totally and continuously suppressed by this cause-effect relationship, except when it is shut down for improvements to extend its range by a factor of ten, AKA 1 order of magnitude. That we do not detect GRB's continuously means simply that we can't be looking everywhere, all the time, for those li'l suckers.
4. A great deal of money could have been saved by erecting a large or small stack of LEGO (TM) plastic interlocking blocks, fitting them out with a couple of laser pointers and two compact mirrors placed several metres apart, watching the mirrors VERY CAREFULLY and hand-writing notes on the detected gravity waves with a number 2 pencil in a small spiral bound notebook, with precisely the same results almost publication-ready for the peer-reviewed journals! That should put an upper limit as to the likely maximum scientific value of not just the detectability of gravitational waves, but also would provide a clear statement as to the gullibility and stoic resilience of taxpayers to being fleeced so often by Big Science to the tune of billions of $US every year on 15 April, or Separation Day.
