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Register a new userJet-cocoon outflows from neutron star mergers: structure, light curves, and fundamental physics
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Authors
Davide Lazzati
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The discovery of GW170817, the merger of a binary neutron star (NS) triggered by a gravitational wave detection by LIGO and Virgo, has opened a new window of exploration in the physics of NSs and their cosmological role. Among the important quantities to measure are the mass and velocity of the ejecta produced by the tidally disrupted NSs and the delay - if any - between the merger and the launching of a relativistic jet. These encode information on the equation of state of the NS, the nature of the merger remnant, and the jet launching mechanism, as well as yielding an estimate of the mass available for r-process nucleosynthesis. Here we derive analytic estimates for the structure of jets expanding in environments with different density, velocity, and radial extent. We compute the jet-cocoon structure and the properties of the broadband afterglow emission as a function of the ejecta mass, velocity, and time delay between merger and launch of the jet. We show that modeling of the afterglow light curve can constrain the ejecta properties and, in turn, the physics of neutron density matter. Our results increase the interpretative power of electromagnetic observations by allowing for a direct connection with the merger physics.
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We investigate mass ejection from accretion disks formed in mergers of black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs). The third observing run of the LIGO/Virgo interferometers provided BH-NS candidate events that yielded no electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. The broad range of disk configurations expected from BH-NS mergers motivates a thorough exploration of parameter space to improve EM signal predictions. Here we conduct 27 high-resolution, axisymmetric, long-term hydrodynamic simulations of the viscous evolution of BH accretion disks that include neutrino emission/absorption effects and post-processing with a nuclear reaction network. In the absence of magnetic fields, these simulations provide a lower-limit to the fraction of the initial disk mass ejected. We find a nearly linear inverse dependence of this fraction on disk compactness (BH mass over initial disk radius). The dependence is related to the fraction of the disk mass accreted before the outflow is launched, which depends on the disk position relative to the innermost stable circular orbit. We also characterize a trend of decreasing ejected fraction and decreasing lanthanide/actinide content with increasing disk mass at fixed BH mass. This trend results from a longer time to reach weak freezout and an increasingly dominant role of neutrino absorption at higher disk masses. We estimate the radioactive luminosity from the disk outflow alone available to power kilonovae over the range of configurations studied, finding a spread of two orders of magnitude. For most of the BH-NS parameter space, the disk outflow contribution is well below the kilonova mass upper limits for GW190814.
Finite size effects in a neutron star merger are manifested, at leading order, through the tidal deformabilities (Lambdas) of the stars. If strong first-order phase transitions do not exist within neutron stars, both neutron stars are described by the same equation of state, and their Lambdas are highly correlated through their masses even if the equation of state is unknown. If, however, a strong phase transition exists between the central densities of the two stars, so that the more massive star has a phase transition and the least massive star does not, this correlation will be weakened. In all cases, a minimum Lambda for each neutron star mass is imposed by causality, and a less conservative limit is imposed by the unitary gas constraint, both of which we compute. In order to make the best use of gravitational wave data from mergers, it is important to include the correlations relating the Lambdas and the masses as well as lower limits to the Lambdas as a function of mass. Focusing on the case without strong phase transitions, and for mergers where the chirp mass M_chirp<1.4M_sun, which is the case for all observed double neutron star systems where a total mass has been accurately measured, we show that the dimensionless Lambdas satisfy Lambda_1/Lambda_2= q^6, where q=M_2/M_1 is the binary mass ratio; $M$ is mass of each star, respectively. Moreover, they are bounded by q^{n_-}>Lambda_1/Lambda_2> q^{n_{0+}+qn_{1+}}, where n_-<n_{0+}+qn_{1+}; the parameters depend only on M_chirp, which is accurately determined from the gravitational-wave signal. We also provide analytic expressions for the wider bounds that exist in the case of a strong phase transition. We argue that bounded ranges for Lambda_1/Lambda_2, tuned to M_chirp, together with lower bounds to Lambda(M), will be more useful in gravitational waveform modeling than other suggested approaches.
The discovery of a radioactively powered kilonova associated with the binary neutron star merger GW170817 was the first - and still only - confirmed electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave event. However, observations of late-time electromagnetic emission are in tension with the expectations from standard neutron-star merger models. Although the large measured ejecta mass is potentially explained by a progenitor system that is asymmetric in terms of the stellar component masses, i.e. with a mass ratio $q$ of 0.7-0.8, the known Galactic population of merging double neutron star (DNS) systems (i.e. those that will coalesce within billions of years or less) has, until now, only consisted of nearly equal-mass ($q > 0.9$) binaries. PSR J1913+1102 is a DNS system in a 5-hour, low-eccentricity ($e = 0.09$) orbit, implying an orbital separation of 1.8 solar radii, with the two neutron stars predicted to coalesce in 470 million years due to gravitational-wave emission. Here we report that the masses of the two neutron stars, as measured by a dedicated pulsar timing campaign, are $1.62 pm 0.03$ and $1.27 pm 0.03$ solar masses for the pulsar and companion neutron star, respectively; with a measured mass ratio $q = 0.78 pm 0.03$, it is the most asymmetric DNS among known merging systems. Based on this detection, our population synthesis analysis implies that such asymmetric binaries represent between 2 and 30% (90% confidence) of the total population of merging DNS binaries. The coalescence of a member of this population offers a possible explanation for the anomalous properties of GW170817, including the observed kilonova emission from that event.
Recent detailed 1D core-collapse simulations have brought new insights on the final fate of massive stars, which are in contrast to commonly used parametric prescriptions. In this work, we explore the implications of these results to the formation of coalescing black-hole (BH) - neutron-star (NS) binaries, such as the candidate event GW190426_152155 reported in GWTC-2. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of natal kicks and the NSs radius on the synthesis of such systems and potential electromagnetic counterparts linked to them. Synthetic models based on detailed core-collapse simulations result in an increased merger detection rate of BH-NS systems ($sim 2.3$ yr$^{-1}$), 5 to 10 times larger than the predictions of standard parametric prescriptions. This is primarily due to the formation of low-mass BH via direct collapse, and hence no natal kicks, favored by the detailed simulations. The fraction of observed systems that will produce an electromagnetic counterpart, with the detailed supernova engine, ranges from $2$-$25$%, depending on uncertainties in the NS equation of state. Notably, in most merging systems with electromagnetic counterparts, the NS is the first-born compact object, as long as the NSs radius is $lesssim 12,mathrm{km}$. Furthermore, core-collapse models that predict the formation of low-mass BHs with negligible natal kicks increase the detection rate of GW190426_152155-like events to $sim 0.6 , $yr$^{-1}$; with an associated probability of electromagnetic counterpart $leq 10$% for all supernova engines. However, increasing the production of direct-collapse low-mass BHs also increases the synthesis of binary BHs, over-predicting their measured local merger density rate. In all cases, models based on detailed core-collapse simulation predict a ratio of BH-NSs to binary BHs merger rate density that is at least twice as high as other prescriptions.
We develop a new method to measure neutron star parameters and derive constraints on the equation of state of dense matter by fitting the frequencies of simultaneous Quasi Periodic Oscillation modes observed in the X-ray flux of accreting neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries. To this aim we calculate the fundamental frequencies of geodesic motion around rotating neutron stars based on an accurate general-relativistic approximation for their external spacetime. Once the fundamental frequencies are related to the observed frequencies through a QPO model, they can be fit to the data to obtain estimates of the three parameters describing the spacetime, namely the neutron star mass, angular momentum and quadrupole moment. From these parameters we derive information on the neutron star structure and equation of state. We present a proof of principle of our method applied to pairs of kHz QPO frequencies observed from three systems (4U1608-52, 4U0614+09 and 4U1728-34). We identify the kHz QPOs with the azimuthal and the periastron precession frequencies of matter orbiting the neutron star, and via our Bayesian inference technique we derive constraints on the neutrons stars masses and radii. This method is applicable to other geodesic-frequency-based QPO models.
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