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Estimating the contribution of dynamical ejecta in the kilonova associated with GW170817

Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Adhikari, R. X. and Ananyeva, A. and Anderson, S. B. and Appert, S. and Arai, K. and Araya, M. C. and Barayoga, J. C. and Barish, B. C. and Billingsley, G. and Biscans, S. and Blackburn, J. K. and Blair, C. D. and Bork, R. and Brooks, A. F. and Brunett, S. and Cahillane, C. and Callister, T. A. and Cepeda, C. B. and Coughlin, M. W. and Couvares, P. and Coyne, D. C. and Ehrens, P. and Eichholz, J. and Etzel, T. and Feicht, J. and Fries, E. M. and Gossan, S. E. and Gushwa, K. E. and Gustafson, E. K. and Heptonstall, A. W. and Isi, M. and Kamai, B. and Kanner, J. B. and Kondrashov, V. and Korth, W. Z. and Kozak, D. B. and Lazzarini, A. and Markowitz, A. and Maros, E. and Massinger, T. J. and Matichard, F. and McIntyre, G. and McIver, J. and Meshkov, S. and Nevin, L. and Pedraza, M. and Perreca, A. and Quintero, E. A. and Reitze, D. H. and Robertson, N. A. and Rollins, J. G. and Sachdev, S. and Sanchez, E. J. and Sanchez, L. E. and Schmidt, P. and Smith, R. J. E. and Taylor, R. and Torrie, C. I. and Tso, R. and Urban, A. L. and Vajente, G. and Vass, S. and Venugopalan, G. and Wade, A. R. and Wallace, L. and Weinstein, A. J. and Williams, R. D. and Willis, J. L. and Wipf, C. C. and Xiao, S. and Yamamoto, H. and Zhang, L. and Zucker, M. E. and Zweizig, J. and Barkett, K. and Blackman, J. and Chen, Y. and Ma, Y. and Pang, B. and Scheel, M. and Varma, V. and Chatziioannou, K. (2017) Estimating the contribution of dynamical ejecta in the kilonova associated with GW170817. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 850 (2). Art. No. L39. ISSN 2041-8213. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa9478. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20171016-131839061

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Abstract

The source of the gravitational-wave (GW) signal GW170817, very likely a binary neutron star merger, was also observed electromagnetically, providing the first multi-messenger observations of this type. The two-week-long electromagnetic (EM) counterpart had a signature indicative of an r-process-induced optical transient known as a kilonova. This Letter examines how the mass of the dynamical ejecta can be estimated without a direct electromagnetic observation of the kilonova, using GW measurements and a phenomenological model calibrated to numerical simulations of mergers with dynamical ejecta. Specifically, we apply the model to the binary masses inferred from the GW measurements, and use the resulting mass of the dynamical ejecta to estimate its contribution (without the effects of wind ejecta) to the corresponding kilonova light curves from various models. The distributions of dynamical ejecta mass range between M_(ej) = 10^(-3) – 10^(-2) M⊙ for various equations of state, assuming that the neutron stars are rotating slowly. In addition, we use our estimates of the dynamical ejecta mass and the neutron star merger rates inferred from GW170817 to constrain the contribution of events like this to the r-process element abundance in the Galaxy when ejecta mass from post-merger winds is neglected. We find that if ≳10% of the matter dynamically ejected from binary neutron star (BNS) mergers is converted to r-process elements, GW170817-like BNS mergers could fully account for the amount of r-process material observed in the Milky Way.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9478DOIArticle
https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05836arXivDiscussion Paper
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Adhikari, R. X.0000-0002-5731-5076
Arai, K.0000-0001-8916-8915
Araya, M. C.0000-0002-6018-6447
Billingsley, G.0000-0002-4141-2744
Biscans, S.0000-0002-9635-7527
Blackburn, J. K.0000-0002-3838-2986
Blair, C. D.0000-0003-4566-6888
Brooks, A. F.0000-0003-4295-792X
Cahillane, C.0000-0002-3888-314X
Callister, T. A.0000-0001-9892-177X
Coughlin, M. W.0000-0002-8262-2924
Coyne, D. C.0000-0002-6427-3222
Eichholz, J.0000-0002-2643-163X
Feicht, J.0000-0001-5223-7091
Fries, E. M.0000-0002-3788-8096
Gossan, S. E.0000-0002-8138-9198
Isi, M.0000-0001-8830-8672
Kamai, B.0000-0001-6521-9351
Kanner, J. B.0000-0001-8115-0577
Korth, W. Z.0000-0003-3527-1348
Kozak, D. B.0000-0003-3118-8950
Markowitz, A.0000-0003-0223-2342
Massinger, T. J.0000-0002-3429-5025
Matichard, F.0000-0001-8982-8418
McIver, J.0000-0003-0316-1355
Meshkov, S.0000-0002-7973-5338
Reitze, D. H.0000-0002-5756-1111
Rollins, J. G.0000-0002-9388-2799
Sachdev, S.0000-0002-2432-7070
Smith, R. J. E.0000-0001-8516-3324
Tso, R.0000-0003-4464-0117
Vajente, G.0000-0002-7656-6882
Venugopalan, G.0000-0003-4414-9918
Wade, A. R.0000-0002-5360-7215
Weinstein, A. J.0000-0002-0928-6784
Williams, R. D.0000-0002-9145-8580
Yamamoto, H.0000-0001-6919-9570
Zhang, L.0000-0002-0898-787X
Zucker, M. E.0000-0002-2544-1596
Zweizig, J.0000-0002-1521-3397
Barkett, K.0000-0001-8230-4363
Blackman, J.0000-0002-7113-0289
Chen, Y.0000-0003-2582-6469
Ma, Y.0000-0001-7192-4874
Pang, B.0000-0002-5697-2162
Scheel, M.0000-0001-6656-9134
Varma, V.0000-0002-9994-1761
Chatziioannou, K.0000-0002-5833-413X
Additional Information:© 2017 The American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Received 2017 October 11; revised 2017 October 14; accepted 2017 October 15; published 2017 December 1. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory and Advanced LIGO as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector and the creation and support of the EGO consortium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge research support from these agencies as well as by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Department of Science and Technology, India, the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, the Vicepresidència i Conselleria d'Innovació Recerca i Turisme and the Conselleria d'Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes Balears, the Conselleria d'Educació Investigació Cultura i Esport de la Generalitat Valenciana, the National Science Centre of Poland, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Science Foundation, the European Commission, the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO), the National Research, Development and Innovation Office Hungary (NKFI), the National Research Foundation of Korea, Industry Canada and the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations, and Communications, the International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Corporation, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan and the Kavli Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF, STFC, MPS, INFN, CNRS, and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for provision of computational resources.
Group:LIGO
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NSFUNSPECIFIED
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)UNSPECIFIED
Max-Planck-Society (MPS)UNSPECIFIED
State of Niedersachsen/GermanyUNSPECIFIED
Australian Research CouncilUNSPECIFIED
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)UNSPECIFIED
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)UNSPECIFIED
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)UNSPECIFIED
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India)UNSPECIFIED
Department of Science and Technology (India)UNSPECIFIED
Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)UNSPECIFIED
Ministry of Human Resource Development (India)UNSPECIFIED
Agencia Estatal de InvestigaciónUNSPECIFIED
Vicepresidència i Conselleria d’Innovació, Recerca i TurismeUNSPECIFIED
Conselleria d’Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes BalearsUNSPECIFIED
Conselleria d’Educació, Investigació, Cultura i Esport de la Generalitat ValencianaUNSPECIFIED
National Science Centre (Poland)UNSPECIFIED
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)UNSPECIFIED
Russian Foundation for Basic ResearchUNSPECIFIED
Russian Science FoundationUNSPECIFIED
European CommissionUNSPECIFIED
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)UNSPECIFIED
Royal SocietyUNSPECIFIED
Scottish Funding CouncilUNSPECIFIED
Scottish Universities Physics AllianceUNSPECIFIED
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA)UNSPECIFIED
Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO)UNSPECIFIED
National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Hungary)UNSPECIFIED
National Research Foundation of KoreaUNSPECIFIED
Industry CanadaUNSPECIFIED
Province of Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationUNSPECIFIED
Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)UNSPECIFIED
Canadian Institute for Advanced ResearchUNSPECIFIED
Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação e ComunicaçãoUNSPECIFIED
International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR)UNSPECIFIED
Research Grants Council of Hong KongUNSPECIFIED
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)UNSPECIFIED
Leverhulme TrustUNSPECIFIED
Research CorporationUNSPECIFIED
Ministry of Science and Technology (Taipei)UNSPECIFIED
Kavli FoundationUNSPECIFIED
Subject Keywords:gravitational waves – methods: data analysis – stars: neutron
Issue or Number:2
DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/aa9478
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20171016-131839061
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20171016-131839061
Official Citation:B. P. Abbott et al 2017 ApJL 850 L39
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:82372
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Joy Painter
Deposited On:16 Oct 2017 21:42
Last Modified:28 Apr 2023 20:24

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