No Arabic abstract
We found type I critical collapses of compact objects modeled by a polytropic equation of state (EOS) with polytropic index $Gamma=2$ without the ultra-relativistic assumption. The object is formed in head-on collisions of neutron stars. Further we showed that the critical collapse can occur due to a change of the EOS, without fine tuning of initial data. This opens the possibility that a neutron star like compact object, not just those formed in a collision, may undergo a critical collapse in processes which slowly change the EOS, such as cooling.
It has been conjectured that in head-on collisions of neutron stars (NSs), the merged object would not collapse promptly even if the total mass is higher than the maximum stable mass of a cold NS. In this paper, we show that the reverse is true: even if the total mass is {it less} than the maximum stable mass, the merged object can collapse promptly. We demonstrate this for the case of NSs with a realistic equation of state (the Lattimer-Swesty EOS) in head-on {it and} near head-on collisions. We propose a ``Prompt Collapse Conjecture for a generic NS EOS for head on and near head-on collisions.
Proca stars are self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensates obtained as numerical stationary solutions of the Einstein-(complex)-Proca system. These solitonic can be both stable and form dynamically from generic initial data by the mechanism of gravitational cooling. In this paper we further explore the dynamical properties of these solitonic objects by performing both head-on collisions and orbital mergers of equal mass Proca stars, using fully non-linear numerical evolutions. For the head-on collisions, we show that the end point and the gravitational waveform from these collisions depends on the compactness of the Proca star. Proca stars with sufficiently small compactness collide leaving a stable Proca star remnant. But more compact Proca stars collide to form a transient ${it hypermassive}$ Proca star, which ends up decaying into a black hole, albeit temporarily surrounded by Proca quasi-bound states. The unstable intermediate stage can leave an imprint in the waveform, making it distinct from that of a head-on collision of black holes. The final quasi-normal ringing matches that of Schwarzschild black hole, even though small deviations may occur, as a signature of sufficiently non-linear and long-lived Proca quasi-bound states. For the orbital mergers, the outcome also depends on the compactness of the stars. For most compact stars, the binary merger forms a Kerr black hole which retains part of the initial orbital angular momentum, being surrounded by a transient Proca field remnant; in cases with lower compactness, the binary merger forms a massive Proca star with angular momentum, but out of equilibrium. As in previous studies of (scalar) boson stars, the angular momentum of such objects appears to converge to zero as a final equilibrium state is approached.
We study the question of prompt vs. delayed collapse in the head-on collision of two neutron stars. We show that the prompt formation of a black hole is possible, contrary to a conjecture of Shapiro which claims that collapse is delayed until after neutrino cooling. We discuss the insight provided by Shapiros conjecture and its limitation. An understanding of the limitation of the conjecture is provided in terms of the many time scales involved in the problem. General relativistic simulations in the Einstein theory with the full set of Einstein equations coupled to the general relativistic hydrodynamic equations are carried out in our study.
We study the general relativistic collapse of neutron star (NS) models in spherical symmetry. Our initially stable models are driven to collapse by the addition of one of two things: an initially in-going velocity profile, or a shell of minimally coupled, massless scalar field that falls onto the star. Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) solutions with an initially isentropic, gamma-law equation of state serve as our NS models. The initial values of the velocity profiles amplitude and the stars central density span a parameter space which we have surveyed extensively and which we find provides a rich picture of the possible end states of NS collapse. This parameter space survey elucidates the boundary between Type I and Type II critical behavior in perfect fluids which coincides, on the subcritical side, with the boundary between dispersed and bound end states. For our particular model, initial velocity amplitudes greater than 0.3c are needed to probe the regime where arbitrarily small black holes can form. In addition, we investigate Type I behavior in our system by varying the initial amplitude of the initially imploding scalar field. In this case we find that the Type I critical solutions resemble TOV solutions on the 1-mode unstable branch of equilibrium solutions, and that the critical solutions frequencies agree well with the fundamental mode frequencies of the unstable equilibria. Additionally, the critical solutions scaling exponent is shown to be well approximated by a linear function of the initial stars central density.
We report a degeneracy between the gravitational-wave signals from quasi-circular precessing black-hole mergers and those from extremely eccentric mergers, namely head-on collisions. Performing model selection on numerically simulated signals of head-on collisions using models for quasi-circular binaries we find that, for signal-to-noise ratios of 15 and 25, typical of Advanced LIGO observations, head-on mergers with respective total masses of $Min (125,300)M_odot$ and $Min (200,440)M_odot$ would be identified as precessing quasi-circular intermediate-mass black hole binaries, located at a much larger distance. Ruling out the head-on scenario would require to perform model selection using currently nonexistent waveform models for head-on collisions, together with the application of astrophysically motivated priors on the (rare) occurrence of those events. We show that in situations where standard parameter inference of compact binaries may report component masses inside (outside) the pair-instability supernova gap, the true object may be a head-on merger with masses outside (inside) this gap. We briefly discuss the potential implications of these findings for the recent gravitational-wave detection GW190521, which we analyse in detail in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 081101].