Distinguishing the nature of comparable-mass neutron star binary systems with multimessenger observations: GW170817 case study

Creators: Hinderer, Tanja; Nissanke, Samaya; Foucart, Francois; Hotokezaka, Kenta; Vincent, Trevor; Kasliwal, Mansi; Schmidt, Patricia; Williamson, Andrew R.; Nichols, David A.; Duez, Matthew D.; Kidder, Lawrence E.; Pfeiffer, Harald P.; Scheel, Mark A.

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Abstract

The discovery of GW170817 with gravitational waves (GWs) and electromagnetic (EM) radiation is prompting new questions in strong-gravity astrophysics. Importantly, it remains unknown whether the progenitor of the merger comprised two neutron stars (NSs) or a NS and a black hole (BH). Using new numerical-relativity simulations and incorporating modeling uncertainties, we produce novel GW and EM observables for NS-BH mergers with similar masses. A joint analysis of GW and EM measurements reveals that if GW170817 is a NS-BH merger, ≲ 40% of the binary parameters consistent with the GW data are compatible with EM observations.

Additional Information

© 2019 American Physical Society. (Received 6 September 2018; published 30 September 2019) We are very grateful to the LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations for public access to their data products used in our joint GW and EM analysis of GW170817. We also thank the GROWTH Collaboration for public access to their observational data products. We thank Jacob Lange, Alexander Tchekhovskoy, and Albino Perego for useful discussions and comments. T. H. is grateful for support from the Radboud University Excellence scheme, the DeltaITP, and Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) Projectruimte grant GWEM-NS. S. N., A. R. W. and D. A. N. are grateful for support from NWO Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Vidi grant (VIDI) and top grant for curiosity-driven research (TOP) Grants of the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (Vernieuwingsimpuls) financed by the NWO. F. F. gratefully acknowledges support from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through Grant No. 80NSSC18K0565. K. H. is supported by the Lyman Spitzer Jr. Fellowship at Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University. T. V. and H. P. P. gratefully acknowledge support by The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, and the Canada Research Chairs Program. P. S. acknowledges NWO Veni Grant No. 680-47-460. M. D. D. acknowledges support through National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant No. PHY-1806207. L. E. K. acknowledges support from NSF Grant No. PHY-1606654, and M. A. S. from NSF Grants No. PHY-1708212, No. PHY-1708213, and No. PHY-1404569. L. E. K. and M. A. S. also thank the Sherman Fairchild Foundation for their support. Part of this work was supported by the GROWTH (Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen) project funded by the National Science Foundation under Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) Grant No. 1545949. Computations were performed on the supercomputer Briaree from the Universite de Montreal, managed by Calcul Quebec and Compute Canada. The operation of these supercomputers is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), NanoQuebec, RMGA and the Fonds de recherche du Quebec—Nature et Technologie (FRQ-NT). Computations were also performed on the Niagara supercomputer at the SciNet HPC Consortium. SciNet is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation under the auspices of Compute Canada; the Government of Ontario; Ontario Research Fund—Research Excellence; and the University of Toronto.

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Published - PhysRevD.100.063021.pdf

Supplemental Material - supplemental.pdf

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