ECCENTRIC MERGERS OF BLACK HOLES WITH SPINNING NEUTRON STARS

William E. East, Vasileios Paschalidis, Frans Pretorius

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study dynamical capture binary black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) mergers focusing on the effects of the neutron star spin. These events may arise in dense stellar regions, such as globular clusters, where the majority of neutron stars are expected to be rapidly rotating. We initialize the BH-NS systems with positions and velocities corresponding to marginally unbound Newtonian orbits, and evolve them using general-relativistic hydrodynamical simulations. We find that even moderate spins can significantly increase the amount of mass in unbound material. In some of the more extreme cases, there can be up to a third of a solar mass in unbound matter. Similarly, large amounts of tidally stripped material can remain bound and eventually accrete onto the BH - as much as a tenth of a solar mass in some cases. These simulations demonstrate that it is important to treat neutron star spin in order to make reliable predictions of the gravitational wave and electromagnetic transient signals accompanying these sources.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numberL3
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume807
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2015

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • black hole physics
  • gamma-ray burst: general
  • gravitation
  • gravitational waves
  • stars: neutron

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