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Abstract The origin of short gamma-ray bursts is associated with outflows powered by the remnant of a binary neutron star merger. This remnant can be either a black hole or a highly magnetized, fast-spinning neutron star, also known as a magnetar. Here we present the results of two relativistic magnetohydrodynamical simulations aimed at investigating the large-scale dynamics and propagation of magnetar collimated outflows through the medium surrounding the remnant. The first simulation evolves a realistic jet by injecting external simulation data, while the second evolves an analytical model jet with similar properties for comparison. We find that both outflows remain collimated and successfully emerge through the static medium surrounding the remnant. However, they fail to attain relativistic velocities and only reach a mean maximum speed of ∼0.7cfor the realistic jet and ∼0.6cfor the analytical jet. We also find that the realistic jet has a much more complex structure. The lack of highly relativistic speeds, which makes these jets unsuitable as short gamma-ray burst sources, is due to numerical limitations and is not general to all possible magnetar outflows. A jet like the one we study, however, could give rise to or augment a blue kilonova component. In addition, it would make the propagation of a relativistic jet easier, should one be launched after the neutron star collapses into a black hole. 

Abstract We present a 3D general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a short-lived neutron star remnant formed in the aftermath of a binary neutron star merger. The simulation uses an M1 neutrino transport scheme to track neutrino–matter interactions and is well suited to studying the resulting nucleosynthesis and kilonova emission. A magnetized wind is driven from the remnant and ejects neutron-rich material at a quasi-steady-state rate of 0.8 × 10⁻¹M_⊙s⁻¹. We find that the ejecta in our simulations underproducer-process abundances beyond the secondr-process peak. For sufficiently long-lived remnants, these outflowsalonecan produce blue kilonovae, including the blue kilonova component observed for AT2017gfo.