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Abstract The detection of GW170817/AT2017gfo inaugurated an era of multimessenger astrophysics, in which gravitational-wave and multiwavelength photon observations complement one another to provide unique insight into astrophysical systems. A broad theoretical consensus exists, in which the photon phenomenology of neutron star mergers largely rests upon the evolution of the small amount of matter left on bound orbits around the black hole or massive neutron star remaining after the merger. Because this accretion disk is far from inflow equilibrium, its subsequent evolution depends very strongly on its initial state, yet very little is known about how this state is determined. Using both snapshot and tracer particle data from a numerical relativity/MHD simulation of an equal-mass neutron star merger that collapses to a black hole, we show how gravitational forces arising in a nonaxisymmetric, dynamical spacetime supplement hydrodynamical effects in shaping the initial structure of the bound debris disk. The work done by hydrodynamical forces is ∼10 times greater than that due to time-dependent gravity. Although gravitational torques prior to remnant relaxation are an order of magnitude larger than hydrodynamical torques, their intrinsic sign symmetry leads to strong cancellation; as a result, hydrodynamical and gravitational torques have a comparable effect. We also show that the debris disk’s initial specific angular momentum distribution is sharply peaked at roughly the specific angular momentum of the merged neutron star’s outer layers, a fewrgc, and identify the regulating mechanism.
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Mass Transfer in Eccentric Black Hole–Neutron Star Mergers
Abstract Black hole–neutron star binaries are of interest in many ways: they are intrinsically transient, radiate gravitational waves detectable by LIGO, and may produceγ-ray bursts. Although it has long been assumed that their late-stage orbital evolution is driven entirely by gravitational wave emission, we show here that in certain circumstances, mass transfer from the neutron star onto the black hole can both alter the binary's orbital evolution and significantly reduce the neutron star's mass: when the fraction of its mass transferred per orbit is ≳10−2, the neutron star's mass diminishes by order unity, leading to mergers in which the neutron star mass is exceptionally small. The mass transfer creates a gas disk around the black holebeforemerger that can be comparable in mass to the debris remaining after merger, i.e., ~0.1M⊙. These processes are most important when the initial neutron star–black hole mass ratioqis in the range ≈0.2–0.8, the orbital semimajor axis is 40 ≲ a0/rg ≲ 300 (rg ≡ GMBH/c2), and the eccentricity is large ate0 ≳ 0.8. Systems of this sort may be generated through the dynamical evolution of a triple system, as well as by other means.
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- PAR ID:
- 10608342
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 978
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 126
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad9b87
