TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 21439 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G296853: Fermi-LAT search for high-energy gamma-ray counterpart DATE: 17/08/09 20:07:38 GMT FROM: Giacomo Vianello at Stanford U/Fermi LAT F.Longo (University and INFN, Trieste), N.Omodei, G.Vianello (Stanford), D.Kocevski (NASA/MSFC) and S.Buson (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Fermi-LAT team: We have searched data collected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) for possible high-energy (E > 100 MeV) gamma-ray emission in spatial/temporal coincidence with the LIGO/Virgo trigger G296853. At the time of the trigger (T0 = 2017-08-09 08:28:21.747 UTC, 523960106.747 MET), none of the LIGO Bayestar probability map was in the LAT field of view. Part of the region entered the LAT field of view 1700 seconds after T0, and we reached 100% cumulative coverage within ~2.7 ks after the trigger. We define "instantaneous coverage" as the integral over the region of the LIGO probability map that is within the LAT field of view at a given time, and "cumulative coverage" as the integral of the instantaneous coverage over time. We performed a search for a transient counterpart within the 90% contour of the LIGO map in the time window from T0 to T0 + 10 ks. We also performed a search which adapted the time interval of the analysis to the exposure of each region of the sky. No significant candidate counterpart was found. Similarly, the Automated Science Processing search, which looks for variation in flux from known sources and for new transients on different time scales (Chiang 2012), did not detect any new transient consistent within the 90% contour of the G296853 map, during a six-hour interval from T0-2hr to T0+4hr. The Fermi-LAT point of contact for this event is Francesco Longo (francesco.longo@ts.infn.it). The Fermi-LAT is a pair conversion telescope designed to cover the energy band from 20 MeV to greater than 300 GeV. It is the product of an international collaboration between NASA and DOE in the U.S. and many scientific institutions across France, Italy, Japan and Sweden. [GCN OPS NOTE(10aug17): Per author's request, the timestamp in the second paragraph was changed from "02:01:16.492 UT 523960106.748" to "08:28:21.747 UTC 523960106.747.]