Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger

Merging neutron stars offer an exquisite laboratory for simultaneously studying strong-field gravity and matter in extreme environments. We establish the physical association of an electromagnetic counterpart EM170817 to gravitational waves (GW170817) detected from merging neutron stars. By synthesi...

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Published in:arXiv.org 2017-10
Main Authors: Kasliwal, M M, Nakar, E, Singer, L P, Kaplan, D L, Cook, D O, A Van Sistine, Lau, R M, Fremling, C, Gottlieb, O, Jencson, J E, Adams, S M, Feindt, U, Hotokezaka, K, Ghosh, S, Perley, D A, P -C Yu, Piran, T, Allison, J R, Anupama, G C, Balasubramanian, A, Bannister, K W, Bally, J, Barnes, J, Barway, S, Bellm, E, Bhalerao, V, Bhattacharya, D, Blagorodnova, N, Bloom, J S, Brady, P R, Cannella, C, Chatterjee, D, Cenko, S B, Cobb, B E, Copperwheat, C, Corsi, A, K De, Dobie, D, Emery, S W K, Evans, P A, Fox, O D, Frail, D A, Frohmaier, C, Goobar, A, Hallinan, G, Harrison, F, Helou, G, Hinderer, T, Ho, A Y Q, Horesh, A, W -H Ip, Itoh, R, Kasen, D, Kim, H, Kuin, N P M, Kupfer, T, Lynch, C, Madsen, K, Mazzali, P A, Miller, A A, Mooley, K, Murphy, T, C -C Ngeow, Nichols, D, Nissanke, S, Nugent, P, Ofek, E O, H Qi, Quimby, R M, Rosswog, S, Rusu, F, Sadler, E M, Schmidt, P, Sollerman, J, Steele, I, Williamson, A R, Y Xu, Yan, L, Yatsu, Y, Zhang, C, Zhao, W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Emission
Extreme environments
Forging
Gamma ray bursts
Gamma rays
Gravitation
Gravitational waves
Heavy elements
Luminosity
Neutron stars
Neutrons
Nuclear fusion
Photons
Relativism
Relativistic effects
Star mergers
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Summary:Merging neutron stars offer an exquisite laboratory for simultaneously studying strong-field gravity and matter in extreme environments. We establish the physical association of an electromagnetic counterpart EM170817 to gravitational waves (GW170817) detected from merging neutron stars. By synthesizing a panchromatic dataset, we demonstrate that merging neutron stars are a long-sought production site forging heavy elements by r-process nucleosynthesis. The weak gamma-rays seen in EM170817 are dissimilar to classical short gamma-ray bursts with ultra-relativistic jets. Instead, we suggest that breakout of a wide-angle, mildly-relativistic cocoon engulfing the jet elegantly explains the low-luminosity gamma-rays, the high-luminosity ultraviolet-optical-infrared and the delayed radio/X-ray emission. We posit that all merging neutron stars may lead to a wide-angle cocoon breakout; sometimes accompanied by a successful jet and sometimes a choked jet.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1710.05436