Bright transients from strongly-magnetized neutron star-black hole mergers
Abstract
Direct detection of black hole-neutron star pairs is anticipated with the advent of aLIGO. Electromagnetic counterparts may be crucial for a confident gravitational-wave detection as well as for extraction of astronomical information. Yet black hole-neutron star pairs are notoriously dark and so inaccessible to telescopes. Contrary to this expectation, a bright electromagnetic transient can occur in the final moments before merger as long as the neutron star is highly magnetized. The orbital motion of the neutron star magnet creates a Faraday flux and corresponding power available for luminosity. A spectrum of curvature radiation ramps up until the rapid injection of energy ignites a fireball, which would appear as an energetic blackbody peaking in the x ray to γ rays for neutron star field strengths ranging from 10^(12) to 10^(16) G respectively and a 10 M_⊙ black hole. The fireball event may last from a few milliseconds to a few seconds depending on the neutron star magnetic-field strength, and may be observable with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor with a rate up to a few per year for neutron star field strengths ≳10^(14) G. We also discuss a possible decaying post-merger event which could accompany this signal. As an electromagnetic counterpart to these otherwise dark pairs, the black-hole battery should be of great value to the development of multi-messenger astronomy in the era of aLIGO.
Additional Information
© 2016 American Physical Society. Received 24 December 2015; revised manuscript received 9 May 2016; published 5 July 2016. The authors thank Andrei Beloborodov, BrianMetzger, and Sean McWilliams for useful discussions. The authors also thank the anonymous referee for comments that improved the manuscript. D. J. D. acknowledges support from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE1144155. J. L. thanks the Tow Foundation for their support. J. L. was also supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Chancellor's Fellow at Chapman University. This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs program. Canada Research Chairs program was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevD.94.023001.pdf
Submitted - 1601.00017v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- Bright Transients from Black Hole - Neutron Star Mergers
- Eprint ID
- 68943
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160711-081727389
- DGE1144155
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- Tow Foundation
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Chapman University
- Canada Research Chairs Program
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada
- Created
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2016-07-11Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-03-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field