No Arabic abstract
We report on numerical results from an independent formalism to describe the quasi-equilibrium structure of nonsynchronous binary neutron stars in general relativity. This is an important independent test of controversial numerical hydrodynamic simulations which suggested that nonsynchronous neutron stars in a close binary can experience compression prior to the last stable circular orbit. We show that, for compact enough stars the interior density increases slightly as irrotational binary neutron stars approach their last orbits. The magnitude of the effect, however, is much smaller than that reported in previous hydrodynamic simulations.
We study the gravitational-wave peak luminosity and radiated energy of quasicircular neutron star mergers using a large sample of numerical relativity simulations with different binary parameters and input physics. The peak luminosity for all the binaries can be described in terms of the mass ratio and of the leading-order post-Newtonian tidal parameter solely. The mergers resulting in a prompt collapse to black hole have largest peak luminosities. However, the largest amount of energy per unit mass is radiated by mergers that produce a hypermassive neutron star or a massive neutron star remnant. We quantify the gravitational-wave luminosity of binary neutron star merger events, and set upper limits on the radiated energy and the remnant angular momentum from these events. We find that there is an empirical universal relation connecting the total gravitational radiation and the angular momentum of the remnant. Our results constrain the final spin of the remnant black-hole and also indicate that stable neutron star remnant forms with super-Keplerian angular momentum.
Binary neutron stars in circular orbits can be modeled as helically symmetric, i.e., stationary in a rotating frame. This symmetry gives rise to a first integral of the Euler equation, often employed for constructing equilibrium solutions via iteration. For eccentric orbits, however, the lack of helical symmetry has prevented the use of this method, and the numerical relativity community has often resorted to constructing initial data by superimposing boosted spherical stars without solving the Euler equation. The spuriously excited neutron star oscillations seen in evolutions of such data arise because such configurations lack the appropriate tidal deformations and are stationary in a linearly comoving---rather than rotating---frame. We consider eccentric configurations at apoapsis that are instantaneously stationary in a rotating frame. We extend the notion of helical symmetry to eccentric orbits, by approximating the elliptical orbit of each companion as instantaneously circular, using the ellipses inscribed circle. The two inscribed helical symmetry vectors give rise to approximate instantaneous first integrals of the Euler equation throughout each companion. We use these integrals as the basis of a self-consistent iteration of the Einstein constraints to construct conformal thin-sandwich initial data for eccentric binaries. We find that the spurious stellar oscillations are reduced by at least an order of magnitude, compared with those found in evolutions of superposed initial data. The tidally induced oscillations, however, are physical and qualitatively similar to earlier evolutions. Finally, we show how to incorporate radial velocity due to radiation reaction in our inscribed helical symmetry vectors, which would allow one to obtain truly non-eccentric initial data when our eccentricity parameter $e$ is set to zero.
We have studied the dynamics of an equal-mass magnetized neutron-star binary within a resistive magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) approach in which the highly conducting stellar interior is matched to an electrovacuum exterior. Because our analysis is aimed at assessing the modifications introduced by resistive effects on the dynamics of the binary after the merger and through to collapse, we have carried out a close comparison with an equivalent simulation performed within the traditional ideal magnetohydrodynamic approximation. We have found that there are many similarities between the two evolutions but also one important difference: the survival time of the hyper massive neutron star increases in a RMHD simulation. This difference is due to a less efficient magnetic-braking mechanism in the resistive regime, in which matter can move across magnetic-field lines, thus reducing the outward transport of angular momentum. Both the RMHD and the ideal magnetohydrodynamic simulations carried here have been performed at higher resolutions and with a different grid structure than those in previous work of ours [L. Rezzolla, B. Giacomazzo, L. Baiotti, J. Granot, C. Kouveliotou, and M. A. Aloy, Astrophys. J. Letters 732, L6 (2011)], but confirm the formation of a low-density funnel with an ordered magnetic field produced by the black hole--torus system. In both regimes the magnetic field is predominantly toroidal in the highly conducting torus and predominantly poloidal in the nearly evacuated funnel. Reconnection processes or neutrino annihilation occurring in the funnel, none of which we model, could potentially increase the internal energy in the funnel and launch a relativistic outflow, which, however, is not produced in these simulations.
Determining the differential-rotation law of compact stellar objects produced in binary neutron stars mergers or core-collapse supernovae is an old problem in relativistic astrophysics. Addressing this problem is important because it impacts directly on the maximum mass these objects can attain and hence on the threshold to black-hole formation under realistic conditions. Using the results from a large number of numerical simulations in full general relativity of binary neutron star mergers described with various equations of state and masses, we study the rotational properties of the resulting hypermassive neutron stars. We find that the angular-velocity distribution shows only a modest dependence on the equation of state, thus exhibiting the traits of quasi-universality found in other aspects of compact stars, both isolated and in binary systems. The distributions are characterized by an almost uniformly rotating core and a disk. Such a configuration is significantly different from the $j-{rm constant}$ differential-rotation law that is commonly adopted in equilibrium models of differentially rotating stars. Furthermore, the rest-mass contained in such a disk can be quite large, ranging from $simeq 0.03,M_{odot}$ in the case of high-mass binaries with stiff equations of state, up to $simeq 0.2,M_{odot}$ for low-mass binaries with soft equations of state. We comment on the astrophysical implications of our findings and on the long-term evolutionary scenarios that can be conjectured on the basis of our simulations.
We compute the internal modes of a non-spinning neutron star and its tidal metric perturbation in general relativity, and determine the effect of relativistic corrections to the modes on mode coupling and the criterion for instability. Claims have been made that a new hydrodynamic instability can occur in a neutron star in a binary neutron star system triggered by the nonlinear coupling of the companions tidal field to pairs of p-modes and g-modes in it as the binary inspirals toward merger. This PG instability may be significant since it can influence the binarys inspiral phase by extracting orbital energy, thereby potentially causing large deviations in their gravitational waveforms from those predicted by theoretical models that do not account for it. This can result in incorrect parameter estimation, at best, or mergers going undetected, at worst, owing to the use of deficient waveform models. On the other hand, better modeling of this instability and its effect on binary orbits can unravel a new phenomenon and shed light on stellar instabilities, via gravitational wave observations. So far, all mode-tide coupling instability studies have been formulated in Newtonian perturbation theory. Neutron stars are compact objects, so relativistic corrections might be important. We present and test a new code to calculate the relativistic eigenmodes of nonrotating relativistic stars. We use these relativistic tide and neutron star eigenmodes to compute the mode-tide coupling strength (MTCS) for a few selected equations of state. The MTCS thus calculated can be at most tens of percent different from its purely Newtonian value, but we confirm the dependencies on orbital separation and equation of state found by Newtonian calculations. For some equations of state, the MTCS is very sensitive to the neutron star crust region, demonstrating the importance of treating this region accurately.