Speaker
Mr
Daniel Siegel
(Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute))
Description
Recent observations indicate that in a large fraction of binary
neutron star (BNS) mergers a long-lived neutron star (NS) may be
formed rather than a black hole. Unambiguous electromagnetic (EM) signatures of
such a scenario would strongly impact our knowledge on
how short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) and their afterglow radiation are
generated. Furthermore, such EM signals would
have profound implications for multimessenger astronomy with joint
EM and gravitational-wave (GW) observations of BNS mergers, which will
soon become reality
with the ground-based advanced LIGO/Virgo GW detector network starting
its first science run this year. Here we present a model to bridge the gap between numerical simulations of the merger process and the relevant timescales for
the afterglows, assuming that the merger results in a long-lived NS. It provides a self-consistent evolution of the post-merger system and its EM emission starting from an early baryonic wind phase and resulting in a final pulsar wind nebula that is confined by the previously ejected material. We present lightcurves and spectra and discuss these results in the context of SGRBs, their X-ray afterglows, and multimessenger astronomy.
Primary author
Mr
Daniel Siegel
(Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute))
Co-author
Dr
Riccardo Ciolfi
(University of Trento and INFN-TIFPA)
