Wang, JS;
Peng, FK;
Wu, K;
Dai, ZG;
(2018)
Pre-merger Electromagnetic Counterparts of Binary Compact Stars.
Astrophysical Journal
, 868
(1)
, Article 19. 10.3847/1538-4357/aae531.
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Abstract
We investigate emission signatures of binary compact star gravitational wave (GW) sources consisting of strongly magnetized neutron stars (NSs) and/or white dwarfs (WDs) in their late-time inspiral phase. Because of electromagnetic interactions between the magnetospheres of the two compact stars, a substantial amount of energy will be extracted, and the resultant power is expected to be ∼1038-1044 erg s-1 in the last few seconds before the two stars merge, when the binary system contains a NS with a surface magnetic field 1012 G. The induced electric field in the process can accelerate charged particles up to the EeV energy range. Synchrotron radiation is emitted from energetic electrons, with radiative energies reaching the GeV energy for binary NSs and the MeV energy for NS-WD or double WD binaries. In addition, a blackbody component is also presented, and it peaks at several to hundreds keV for binary NSs and at several keV for NS-WD or double WD binaries. The strong angular dependence of the synchrotron radiation and the isotropic nature of the blackbody radiation lead to distinguishable modulation patterns between the two emission components. If coherent curvature radiation is presented, fast radio bursts could be produced. These components provide unique simultaneous electromagnetic signatures as precursors of GW events associated with magnetized compact star mergers and short gamma-ray bursts (e.g., GRB 100717).
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Pre-merger Electromagnetic Counterparts of Binary Compact Stars |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3847/1538-4357/aae531 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aae531 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is the published version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | binaries: close; gravitational waves; stars: magnetic field; stars: neutron; white dwarfs |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10063851 |
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