BRIGHT 'MERGER-NOVA' FROM THE REMNANT OF A NEUTRON STAR BINARY MERGER: A SIGNATURE OF A NEWLY BORN, MASSIVE, MILLISECOND MAGNETAR

Journal Article · Sun Oct 20 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/776/2/L40· OSTI ID:22215434

Yu, Yun-Wei ^[1]; Zhang, Bing; Gao, He ^[2]

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1. Institute of Astrophysics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079 (China)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154 (United States)

A massive millisecond magnetar may survive the merger of a neutron star (NS) binary, which would continuously power the merger ejecta. We develop a generic dynamic model for the merger ejecta with energy injection from the central magnetar. The ejecta emission (the {sup m}erger-nova{sup )} powered by the magnetar peaks in the UV band and the peak of the light curve, progressively shifts to an earlier epoch with increasing frequency. A magnetar-powered merger-nova could have an optical peak brightness comparable to a supernova, which is a few tens or hundreds times brighter than the radioactive-powered merger-novae (the so-called macro-nova or kilo-nova). On the other hand, such a merger-nova would peak earlier and have a significantly shorter duration than that of a supernova. An early collapse of the magnetar could suppress the brightness of the optical emission and shorten its duration. Such millisecond-magnetar-powered merger-novae may be detected from NS-NS merger events without an observed short gamma-ray burst, and could be a bright electromagnetic counterpart for gravitational wave bursts due to NS-NS mergers. If detected, it suggests that the merger leaves behind a massive NS, which has important implications for the equation-of-state of nuclear matter.

• OSTI ID: 22215434
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 776; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BRIGHTNESS
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
EMISSION
EQUATIONS OF STATE
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
NEUTRON STARS
NOVAE
NUCLEAR MATTER
PEAKS
SUPERNOVAE