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			<titleStmt><title level='a'>Gravitational Instability and Fragmentation in Collapsar Disks Supports the Formation of Subsolar Neutron Stars</title></titleStmt>
			<publicationStmt>
				<publisher>IoP</publisher>
				<date>09/18/2025</date>
			</publicationStmt>
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				<bibl> 
					<idno type="par_id">10687406</idno>
					<idno type="doi">10.3847/2041-8213/ae045d</idno>
					<title level='j'>The Astrophysical Journal Letters</title>
<idno>2041-8205</idno>
<biblScope unit="volume">991</biblScope>
<biblScope unit="issue">1</biblScope>					

					<author>Yi-Xian Chen</author><author>Brian D Metzger</author>
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			<abstract><ab><![CDATA[<title>Abstract</title> <p>We perform three-dimensional shearing box hydrodynamical simulations to explore the outcome of gravitational instability in the outer regions of neutrino-cooled disks such as those formed from the collapse of rotating massive stars (“collapsars”). We employ a physical equation of state and optically thin neutrino cooling and assume an electron fraction set by the balance of<italic>e</italic><sup>±</sup>pair-capture reactions. Disks in a marginally stable initial state (Toomre parameter<italic>Q</italic>≈1) undergo runaway cooling and fragmentation when the dimensionless cooling timescale obeys<italic>τ</italic><sub>cool</sub>≡<italic>t</italic><sub>cool</sub>Ω≲10, where Ω is the orbital frequency; these conditions correspond to accretion rates ≳<italic>M</italic><sub>⊙</sub>s<sup>−1</sup>on the upper end of those achieved by collapsar progenitor stars. Fragmentation leads to the formation of neutron-rich clumps (electron fraction<italic>Y</italic><sub><italic>e</italic></sub>≲0.1) spanning a range of masses ∼0.01–1<italic>M</italic><sub>⊙</sub>around the local Jeans value. Most clumps exceed the local Chandrasekhar mass<inline-formula><tex-math><CDATA/></tex-math><math overflow='scroll'><msub><mrow><mi>M</mi></mrow><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>Ch</mi></mrow></msub><mo>∝</mo><msubsup><mrow><mi>Y</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>e</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msubsup></math></inline-formula>and hence will continue to collapse to nuclear densities, forming neutron stars (NSs) with subsolar masses otherwise challenging to create through ordinary stellar core collapse. Even cool disks dominated by<italic>α</italic>particles (<italic>Y</italic><sub><italic>e</italic></sub>≃0.5) can fragment and collapse into neutron-rich clumps capable of forming subsolar NSs. Although our simulations cannot follow this process directly, if the disk-formed NSs subsequently pair into binaries, the GW chirps from their rapid mergers are potentially detectable by ground-based observatories. The temporal coincidence of such a hierarchical NS merger chain with the collapsar gamma-ray burst and supernova would offer a uniquely spectacular multimessenger “symphony.”</p>]]></ab></abstract>
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