Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 776, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/776/2/L40
Keywords
gamma-ray burst: general; stars: neutron; supernovae: general
Categories
Funding
- 973 program [2014CB845800]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [11103004]
- National Excellent Doctoral Dissertations of China [201225]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
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 merger-nova) 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.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available