Neutrino Flavor Evolution in Binary Neutron Star Merger Remnants

We study the neutrino flavor evolution in the neutrino-driven wind from a binary neutron star merger remnant consisting of a massive neutron star surrounded by an accretion disk. With the neutrino emission characteristics and the hydrodynamical profile of the remnant consistently extracted from a three-dimensional simulation, we compute the flavor evolution by taking into account neutrino coherent forward scattering off ordinary matter and neutrinos themselves. We employ a "single-trajectory" approach to investigate the dependence of the flavor evolution on the neutrino emission location and angle. We also show that the flavor conversion in the merger remnant can affect the (anti-)neutrino absorption rates on free nucleons and may thus impact the $r$-process nucleosynthesis in the wind. We discuss the sensitivity of such results on the change of neutrino emission characteristics, also from different neutron star merger simulations.Comment: 24 pages, 20 figures. Figures and text in the result section V have been modified (due to a numerical error), conclusion remain

Gravitational-wave luminosity of binary neutron stars mergers

We study the gravitational-wave peak luminosity and radiated energy of quasicircular neutron star mergers using a large sample of numerical relativity simulations with different binary parameters and input physics. The peak luminosity for all the binaries can be described in terms of the mass ratio and of the leading-order post-Newtonian tidal parameter solely. The mergers resulting in a prompt collapse to black hole have largest peak luminosities. However, the largest amount of energy per unit mass is radiated by mergers that produce a hypermassive neutron star or a massive neutron star remnant. We quantify the gravitational-wave luminosity of binary neutron star merger events, and set upper limits on the radiated energy and the remnant angular momentum from these events. We find that there is an empirical universal relation connecting the total gravitational radiation and the angular momentum of the remnant. Our results constrain the final spin of the remnant black-hole and also indicate that stable neutron star remnant forms with super-Keplerian angular momentum.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Thermodynamics conditions of matter in neutron star mergers

Matter in neutron star collisions can reach densities up to few times the nuclear saturation threshold and temperatures up to one hundred MeV. Understanding the structure and composition of such matter requires many-body nonperturbative calculations that are currently highly uncertain.Unique constraints on the neutron star matter are provided by gravitational-wave observations aided by numerical relativity simulations. In this work, we explore the thermodynamical conditions of matter and radiation along the merger dynamics. We consider 3 microphysical equation of state models and numerical relativity simulations including an approximate neutrino transport scheme. The neutron star cores collision and their multiple centrifugal bounces heat the initially cold matter to several tens of MeV. Streams of hot matter with initial densities $\sim1-2\rho_0$ move outwards and cool due to decompression and neutrino emission. The merger can result in a neutron star remnant with densities up to $3-5\rho_0$ and temperatures $\sim 50$~MeV. The highest temperatures are confined in an approximately spherical annulus at densities $\sim\rho_0$. Such temperatures favour positron-neutron capture at densities $\sim\rho_0$, thus leading to a neutrino emission dominated by electron antineutrinos. We study the impact of trapped neutrinos on the remnant matter's pressure, electron fraction and temperature and find that it has a negligible effect. Disks around neutron star or black hole remnant are neutron rich and not isentropic, but they differ in size, entropy and lepton fraction depending on the nature of the central object. In presence of a black hole, disks are smaller and mostly transparent to neutrinos; in presence of a massive neutron star, they are more massive, geometrically and optically thick.Comment: 23 pages, 10 Figures, to be submitted to EPJA Topical Issue: The first Neutron Star Merger Observation - Implications for Nuclear Physics. Movies of the thermodynamical conditions available also on the youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChmn-JGNa9mfY5H5938jni

Neutrino-driven winds in the aftermath of a neutron star merger: nucleosynthesis and electromagnetic transients

We present a comprehensive nucleosynthesis study of the neutrino-driven wind in the aftermath of a binary neutron star merger. Our focus is the initial remnant phase when a massive central neutron star is present. Using tracers from a recent hydrodynamical simulation, we determine total masses and integrated abundances to characterize the composition of unbound matter. We find that the nucleosynthetic yields depend sensitively on both the life time of the massive neutron star and the polar angle. Matter in excess of up to $9 \cdot 10^{-3} M_\odot$ becomes unbound until $\sim 200~{\rm ms}$. Due to electron fractions of $Y_{\rm e} \approx 0.2 - 0.4$ mainly nuclei with mass numbers $A < 130$ are synthesized, complementing the yields from the earlier dynamic ejecta. Mixing scenarios with these two types of ejecta can explain the abundance pattern in r-process enriched metal-poor stars. Additionally, we calculate heating rates for the decay of the freshly produced radioactive isotopes. The resulting light curve peaks in the blue band after about $4~{\rm h}$. Furthermore, high opacities due to heavy r-process nuclei in the dynamic ejecta lead to a second peak in the infrared after $3-4~{\rm d}$.Comment: 15 pages, 18 figures, 2 tables, accepted by Ap