A DOUBLE NEUTRON STAR MERGER ORIGIN FOR THE COSMOLOGICAL RELATIVISTIC FADING SOURCE PTF11agg?
- Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154 (United States)
- School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China)
- National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012 (China)
The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) team recently reported the discovery of a rapidly fading optical transient source, PTF11agg. A long-lived scintillating radio counterpart was identified, but the search for a high-energy counterpart showed negative results. The PTF team speculated that PTF11agg may represent a new class of relativistic outbursts. Here we suggest that a neutron star (NS)-NS merger system with a supra-massive magnetar central engine could be a possible source to power such a transient, if our line of sight is not on the jet axis direction of the system. These systems are also top candidates for gravitational wave sources to be detected in the advanced LIGO/Virgo era. We find that the PTF11agg data could be explained well with such a model, suggesting that at least some gravitational wave bursts due to NS-NS mergers may be associated with such a bright electromagnetic counterpart without a γ-ray trigger.
- OSTI ID:
- 22364034
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 781, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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