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Register a new userConstraining neutron star radii in black hole-neutron star mergers from their electromagnetic counterparts
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Mergers of black hole (BH) and neutron star (NS) binaries are of interest since the emission of gravitational waves (GWs) can be followed by an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart, which could power short gamma-ray bursts. Until now, LIGO/Virgo has only observed a candidate BH-NS event, GW190426_152155, which was not followed by any EM counterpart. We discuss how the presence (absence) of a remnant disk, which powers the EM counterpart, can be used along with spin measurements by LIGO/Virgo to derive a lower (upper) limit on the radius of the NS. For the case of GW190426_152155, large measurement errors on the spin and mass ratio prevent from placing an upper limit on the NS radius. Our proposed method works best when the aligned component of the BH spin (with respect to the orbital angular momentum) is the largest, and can be used to complement the information that can be extracted from the GW signal to derive valuable information on the NS equation of state.
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Detections of gravitational waves (GWs) may soon uncover the signal from the coalescence of a black hole - neutron star (BHNS) binary, that is expected to be accompanied by an electromagnetic (EM) signal. In this paper, we present a composite semi-analytical model to predict the properties of the expected EM counterpart from BHNS mergers, focusing on the kilonova emission and on the gamma-ray burst afterglow. Four main parameters rule the properties of the EM emission: the NS mass $M_mathrm{NS}$, its tidal deformability $Lambda_mathrm{NS}$, the BH mass and spin. Only for certain combinations of these parameters an EM counterpart is produced. Here we explore the parameter space, and construct light curves, analysing the dependence of the EM emission on the NS mass and tidal deformability. Exploring the NS parameter space limiting to $M_mathrm{NS}-Lambda_mathrm{NS}$ pairs described by a physically motivated equations of state (EoS), we find that the brightest EM counterparts are produced in binaries with low mass NSs (fixing the BH properties and the EoS). Using constraints on the NS EoS from GW170817, our modeling shows that the emission falls in a narrow range of absolute magnitudes. Within the range of explored parameters, light curves and peak times are not dissimilar to those from NSNS mergers, except in the B band. The lack of an hyper/supra-massive NS in BHNS coalescences causes a dimming of the blue kilonova emission in absence of the neutrino interaction with the ejecta.
Black hole-neutron star (BHNS) binaries are amongst promising candidates for the joint detection of electromagnetic (EM) signals with gravitational waves (GWs) and are expected to be detected in the near future. Here we study the effect of the BHNS binary parameters on the merger ejecta properties and associated EM signals. We estimate the remnant disk and unbound ejecta masses for BH mass and spin distributions motivated from the observations of transient low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and specific NS equation of state (EoS). The amount of r-process elements synthesised in BHNS mergers is estimated to be a factor of $sim 10^{2}-10^{4}$ smaller than BNS mergers, due to the smaller dynamical ejecta and merger rates for the former. We compute the EM luminosities and light curves for the early- and late-time emissions from the ultra-relativistic jet, sub-relativistic dynamical ejecta and wind, and the mildly-relativistic cocoon for typical ejecta parameters. We then evaluate the low-latency EM follow-up rates of the GW triggers in terms of the GW detection rate $dot{N}_{GW}$ for current telescope sensitivities and typical BHNS binary parameters to find that most of the EM counterparts are detectable for high BH spin, small BH mass and stiffer NS EoS when NS disruption is significant. Based on the relative detection rates for given binary parameters, we find the ease of EM follow-up to be: ejecta afterglow $>$ cocoon afterglow $gtrsim$ jet prompt $>$ ejecta macronova $>$ cocoon prompt $>$ jet afterglow $>>$ wind macronova $>>$ wind afterglow.
For a binary composed of a spinning black hole (BH) (with mass $gtrsim 7M_odot$) and a strongly magnetized neutron star (NS) (with surface magnetic field strength $B_{rm S,NS}gtrsim10^{12}$,G and mass $sim 1.4M_odot$), the NS as a whole will possibly eventually plunge into the BH. During the inspiral phase, the spinning BH could be charged to the Wald charge quantity $Q_{rm W}$ until merger in an electro-vacuum approximation. During the merger, if the spinning charged BH creates its own magnetosphere due to an electric field strong enough for pair cascades to spark, the charged BH would transit from electro-vacuum to force-free cases and could discharge in a time $gtrsim1~{rm ms}$. As the force-free magnetosphere is full of a highly conducting plasma, the magnetic flux over the NSs caps would be retained outside the BHs event horizon under the frozen-in condition. Based on this scenario, we here investigate three possible energy-dissipation mechanisms that could produce electromagnetic (EM) counterparts in a time interval of the BHs discharge post a BH-NS merger-induced gravitational wave event: (1) magnetic reconnection at the BHs poles would occur, leading to a millisecond bright EM signal, (2) a magnetic shock in the zone of closed magnetic field lines due to the detachment and reconnection of the entire BH magnetic field would probably produce a bright radio emission, e.g., a fast radio burst, and (3) the Blandford-Znajek mechanism would extract the BHs rotational energy, giving rise to a millisecond-duration luminous high-energy burst. We also calculate the luminosities due to these mechanisms as a function of BHs spin for different values of $B_{rm S,NS}$.
We predict linear polarization for a radioactively-powered kilonova following the merger of a black hole and a neutron star. Specifically, we perform 3-D Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations for two different models, both featuring a lanthanide-rich dynamical ejecta component from numerical-relativity simulations while only one including an additional lanthanide-free disk wind component. We calculate polarization spectra for nine different orientations at 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 d after the merger and in the $0.1-2,mu$m wavelength range. We find that both models are polarized at a detectable level 1.5 d after the merger while show negligible levels thereafter. The polarization spectra of the two models are significantly different. The model lacking a disk wind shows no polarization in the optical, while a signal increasing at longer wavelengths and reaching $sim1%-6%$ at $2,mu$m depending on the orientation. The model with a disk-wind component, instead, features a characteristic double-peak polarization spectrum with one peak in the optical and the other in the infrared. Polarimetric observations of future events will shed light on the debated neutron richness of the disk-wind component. The detection of optical polarization would unambiguously reveal the presence of a lanthanide-free disk-wind component, while polarization increasing from zero in the optical to a peak in the infrared would suggest a lanthanide-rich composition for the whole ejecta. Future polarimetric campaigns should prioritize observations in the first $sim48$ hours and in the $0.5-2,mu$m range, where polarization is strongest, but also explore shorter wavelengths/later times where no signal is expected from the kilonova and the interstellar polarization can be safely estimated.
The detections of gravitational waves (GWs) from binary neutron star (BNS) systems and neutron star--black hole (NSBH) systems provide new insights into dense matter properties in extreme conditions and associated high-energy astrophysical processes. However, currently information about NS equation of state (EoS) is extracted with very limited precision. Meanwhile, the fruitful results from the serendipitous discovery of the $gamma$-ray burst alongside GW170817 show the necessity of early warning alerts. Accurate measurements of the matter effects and sky location could be achieved by joint GW detection from space and ground. In our work, based on two example cases, GW170817 and GW200105, we use the Fisher information matrix analysis to investigate the multiband synergy between the space-borne decihertz GW detectors and the ground-based Einstein Telescope (ET). We specially focus on the parameters pertaining to spin-induced quadrupole moment, tidal deformability, and sky localization. We demonstrate that, (i) only with the help of multiband observations can we constrain the quadrupole parameter; and (ii) with the inclusion of decihertz GW detectors, the errors of tidal deformability would be a few times smaller, indicating that many more EoSs could be excluded; (iii) with the inclusion of ET, the sky localization improves by about an order of magnitude. Furthermore, we have systematically compared the different limits from four planned decihertz detectors and adopting two widely used waveform models.
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