Unequal mass binary neutron star mergers and multimessenger signals

Luis Lehner, Steven L. Liebling, Carlos Palenzuela, O. L. Caballero, Evan O'Connor, Matthew Anderson, David Neilsen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

140 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study the merger of binary neutron stars with different mass ratios adopting three different realistic, microphysical nuclear equations of state, as well as incorporating neutrino cooling effects. In particular, we concentrate on the influence of the equation of state on the gravitational wave signature and also on its role, in combination with neutrino cooling, in determining the properties of the resulting hypermassive neutron star, of the neutrinos produced, and of the ejected material. The ejecta we find are consistent with other recent studies that find that small mass ratios produce more ejecta than equal mass cases (up to some limit) and this ejecta is more neutron rich. This trend indicates the importance with future kilonovae observations of measuring the individual masses of an associated binary neutron star system, presumably from concurrent gravitational wave observations, in order to be able to extract information about the nuclear equation of state.

Original languageEnglish
Article number184002
JournalClassical and Quantum Gravity
Volume33
Issue number18
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2 2016

Keywords

  • binary neutron stars
  • electromagnetic counterparts
  • gravitational waves
  • multimessenger astronomy
  • numerical relativity

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