Comparing hierarchical black hole mergers in star clusters and active galactic nuclei

Star clusters (SCs) and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are promising sites for the occurrence of hierarchical black hole (BH) mergers. We use simple models to compare hierarchical BH mergers in two of the dynamical formation channels. We find that the primary mass distribution of hierarchical mergers in AGNs is higher than that in SCs, with the peaks of $\sim$$50\,M_{\odot}$ and $\sim$$13\,M_{\odot}$, respectively. The effective spin ($\chi_{\rm eff}$) distribution of hierarchical mergers in SCs is symmetrical around zero as expected and $\sim$$50\%$ of the mergers have $|\chi_{\rm eff}|>0.2$. The distribution of $\chi_{\rm eff}$ in AGNs is narrow and prefers positive values with the peak of $\chi_{\rm eff}\ge0.3$ due to the assistance of AGN disks. BH hierarchical growth efficiency in AGNs, with at least $\sim$$30\%$ of mergers being hierarchies, is much higher than the efficiency in SCs. Furthermore, there are obvious differences in the mass ratios and effective precession parameters of hierarchical mergers in SCs and AGNs. We argue that the majority of the hierarchical merger candidates detected by LIGO-Virgo may originate from the AGN channel as long as AGNs get half of the hierarchical merger rate.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in PHYS. REV. D; v2. add Figs. 4 and 5, showing mass-ratios and effective precession parameters, respectively; v3. delete an additional free parameter (maximum generation, $N_{\rm max}^{\rm G}$), replot Fig. 3 using the mergers detected by LIGO-Virgo, and add Yong Yuan as the third author of this manuscript; v4. add more details for SN

Understanding Simulations of Thin Accretion Disks by Energy Equation

We study the fluctuations of standard thin accretion disks by linear analysis of the time-dependent energy equation together with the vertical hydrostatic equilibrium and the equation of state. We show that some of the simulation results in Hirose et al. (2009b), such as the time delay, the relationship of power spectra, and the correlation between magnetic energy and radiation energy, can be well understood by our analytic results.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure, accepted for publication in Ap

Event Rate of Fast Radio Burst from Binary Neutron-star Mergers

It is proposed that one-off fast radio burst (FRB) with periodic structures may be produced during the inspiral phase of a binary neutron-star (BNS) merger. In this paper, we study the event rate of such kind of FRB. We first investigate the properties of two one-off FRBs with periodic structures (i.e., FRB~20191221A and FRB~20210213A) in this scenario, by assuming the fast magnetosonic wave is responsible for their radio emission. For the luminosities and periods of these bursts, it is found that the pre-merger BNS with magnetic field strength $B\gtrsim 10^{12}\,{\rm Gs}$ is required. This is relatively high compared with that of the most of the BNSs observed in our Galaxy, of which the magnetic field is around $10^{9}\,{\rm Gs}$. Since the observed BNSs in our Galaxy are the binaries without suffering merger, a credited event rate of BNS-merger originated FRBs should be estimated by considering the evolution of both the BNS systems and their magnetic fields. Based on the population synthesis and adopting a decaying magnetic field of NSs, we estimate the event rate of BNS-mergers relative to their final magnetic fields. We find that the rapid merged BNSs tend to merge with high magnetization, and the event rate of BNS-merger originated FRBs, i.e., the BNS-mergers with both NSs' magnetic field being higher than $10^{12}\,{\rm Gs}$ is $\sim8\times10^{4}\,\rm{yr}^{-1}$ ($19 \%$ of the total BNS-mergers) in redshift $z<1$.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

Revisiting the Constraint on Equation of State of Neutron Star based on the Binary Neutron Star Mergers

The merger of neutron star (NS)-NS binary can form different production of the compact remnant, among which the supramassive NS (SMNS) could create an internal plateau and the followed steep decay marks the collapse of the SMNS. The proportion of SMNS and the corresponding collapse-time are often used to constrain the NS equation of state (EoS). This paper revisits this topic by considering the effect of an accretion disk on the compact remnant, which is not considered in previous works. Compared with previous works, the collapse-time distribution (peaks $\sim$100 s) of the SMNSs formed from NS-NS merger is almost unaffected by the initial surface magnetic ($B_{{\rm s},i}$) of NS, but the total energy output of the magnetic dipole radiation from the SMNSs depends on $B_{{\rm s},i}$ significantly. Coupling the constraints from the SMNS fraction, we exclude some EoSs and obtain three candidate EoSs, i.e., DD2, ENG, and MPA1. By comparing the distributions of the collapse-time and the luminosity of the internal plateau (in the short gamma-ray bursts) for those from observations with those obtained based on the three candidate EoSs, it is shown that only the EoS of ENG is favored. Our sample based on the ENG EOS and a mass distribution motivated by Galactic systems suggests that approximately $99\%$ of NS-NS mergers collapse to form a black hole within $10^7$s. This includes scenarios forming a BH promptly ($36.5\%$), a SMNS ($60.7\%$), or a stable NS that transitions into a BH or a SMNS following accretion ($2.1\%$). It also indicates that the remnants for GW170817 and GW190425, and the second object of GW190814 are more likely to be BHs