Loeb, Abraham2017-05-312016Loeb, Abraham. 2016. “Electromagnetic Counterparts to Black Hole Mergers Detected by LIGO.” The Astrophysical Journal 819 (2) (March 3): L21. doi:10.3847/2041-8205/819/2/l21.2041-8213http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:32750966Mergers of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), such as GW150914 observed by LIGO, are not expected to have electromagnetic counterparts. However, the Fermi GBM detector identified of a gamma-ray transient 0.4 s after the gravitational wave (GW) signal GW150914 with consistent sky localization. I show that the two signals might be related if the BH binary detected by LIGO originated from two clumps in a dumbbell configuration that formed when the core of a rapidly rotating massive star collapsed. In that case, the BH binary merger was followed by a gamma-ray burst (GRB) from a jet that originated in the accretion flow around the remnant BH. A future detection of a GRB afterglow could be used to determine the redshift and precise localization of the source. A population of standard GW sirens with GRB redshifts would provide a new approach for precise measurements of cosmological distances as a function of redshift.en-USJournal Article2017-02-1420162017-05-3110.3847/2041-8205/819/2/l21