Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ∼ 1.7 {{s}} with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of {40}-8+8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 {M}ȯ . An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ∼ 40 {{Mpc}}) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ∼10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ∼ 9 and ∼ 16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta.</p

Simulations of galaxy formation in a cosmological volume

We present results of large N-body–hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation. Our simulations follow the formation of galaxies in cubic volumes of side 100 Mpc, in two versions of the cold dark matter (CDM) cosmogony: the standard, Ω=1 SCDM model and the flat, Ω=0.3ΛCDM model. Over 2000 galaxies form in each of these simulations. We examine the rate at which gas cools and condenses into dark matter haloes. This roughly tracks the cosmic star formation rate inferred from observations at various redshifts. Galaxies in the simulations form gradually over time in the hierarchical fashion characteristic of the CDM cosmogony. In the ΛCDM model, substantial galaxies first appear at z5 and the population builds up rapidly until z=1 after which the rate of galaxy formation declines as cold gas is consumed and the cooling time of hot gas increases. In the SCDM simulation, the evolution is qualitatively similar, but is shifted towards lower redshift. In both cosmologies, the present-day K-band luminosity function of the simulated galaxies resembles the observations. The galaxy autocorrelation functions differ significantly from those of the dark matter. At the present epoch there is little bias in either model between galaxies and dark matter on large scales, but a significant anti-bias on scales of 1 h1 Mpc and a positive bias on scales of 100 h1 kpc is seen. The galaxy correlation function evolves little with redshift in the range z=0–3, and depends on the luminosity of the galaxy sample. The projected pairwise velocity dispersion of the galaxies is much lower than that of the dark matter on scales less than 2 h1 Mpc. Applying a virial mass estimator to the largest galaxy clusters recovers the cluster virial masses in an unbiased way. Although our simulations are affected by numerical limitations, they illustrate the power of this approach for studying the formation of the galaxy population

Stable clustering, the halo model and non-linear cosmological power spectra

We present the results of a large library of cosmological N-body simulations, using power-law initial spectra. The non-linear evolution of the matter power spectra is compared with the predictions of existing analytic scaling formulae based on the work of Hamilton et al. The scaling approach has assumed that highly non-linear structures obey 'stable clustering' and are frozen in proper coordinates. Our results show that, when transformed under the self-similarity scaling, the scale-free spectra define a non-linear locus that is clearly shallower than would be required under stable clustering. Furthermore, the small-scale non-linear power increases as both the power spectrum index n and the density parameter Ω decrease, and this evolution is not well accounted for by the previous scaling formulae. This breakdown of stable clustering can be understood as resulting from the modification of dark matter haloes by continuing mergers. These effects are naturally included in the analytic 'halo model' for non-linear structure; we use this approach to fit both our scale-free results and also our previous cold dark matter data. This method is more accurate than the commonly used Peacock–Dodds formula and should be applicable to more general power spectra. Code to evaluate non-linear power spectra using this method is available from http://as1.chem.nottingham.ac.uk/~res/software.html. Following publication, we will make the power-law simulation data publically available through the Virgo website http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/Virgo/

Galaxies-intergalactic medium interaction calculation - I. Galaxy formation as a function of large-scale environment

We present the first results of hydrodynamical simulations that follow the formation of galaxies to the present day in nearly spherical regions of radius ∼20 h−1 Mpc drawn from the Millennium Simulation (Springel et al.). The regions have mean overdensities that deviate by (−2, −1, 0, +1, +2)σ from the cosmic mean, where σ is the rms mass fluctuation on a scale of ∼20 h−1 Mpc at z= 1.5. The simulations have mass resolution of up to ∼106 h−1 M⊙, cover the entire range of large-scale cosmological environments, including rare objects such as massive clusters and sparse voids, and allow extrapolation of statistics to the (500 h−1 Mpc)3 Millennium Simulation volume as a whole. They include gas cooling, photoheating from an imposed ionizing background, supernova feedback and galactic winds, but no AGN. In this paper, we focus on the star formation properties of the model. We find that the specific star formation rate density at z≲ 10 varies systematically from region to region by up to an order of magnitude, but the global value, averaged over all volumes, closely reproduces observational data. Massive, compact galaxies, similar to those observed in the GOODS fields (Wiklind et al.), form in the overdense regions as early as z= 6, but do not appear in the underdense regions until z∼ 3. These environmental variations are not caused by a dependence of the star formation properties on environment, but rather by a strong variation of the halo mass function from one environment to another, with more massive haloes forming preferentially in the denser regions. At all epochs, stars form most efficiently in haloes of circular velocity vc∼ 250 km s−1. However, the star formation history exhibits a form of ‘downsizing’ (even in the absence of AGN feedback): the stars comprising massive galaxies at z= 0 have mostly formed by z= 1−2, whilst those comprising smaller galaxies typically form at later times. However, additional feedback is required to limit star formation in massive galaxies at late times

Evolution of structure in cold dark matter universes

We present an analysis of the clustering evolution of dark matter in four cold dark matter (CDM) cosmologies. We use a suite of high resolution, 17-million particle, N-body simulations which sample volumes large enough to give clustering statistics with unprecedented accuracy. We investigate a flat model with #OMEGA#_0 = 0.3, an open model also with #OMEGA#_0 = 0.3, and two models with #OMEGA# = 1, one with the standard CDM power spectrum and the other with the same power spectrum as the #OMEGA#_0 = 0.3 models. In all cases, the amplitude of primordial fluctuations is set so that the models reproduce the observed abundance of rich galaxy clusters by the present day. The mass two-point correlation function and power spectrum of all the simulations differ significantly from those of the observed galaxy distribution, in both shape and amplitude. Thus, for any of these models to provide an acceptable representation of reality, the distribution of galaxies must be biased relative to the mass in a non-trivial, scale-dependent, fashion. In the #OMEGA# = 1 models the required bias is always greater than unity, but in the #OMEGA#_0 = 0.3 models an ''antibias'' is required on scales smaller than #propor to#5h&quot;-&quot;1 Mpc. The mass correlation functions in the simulations are well fit by recently published analytic models. The velocity fields are remarkably similar in all the models, whether they be characterised as bulk flows, single-particle or pairwise velocity dispersions. This similarity is a direct consequence of our adopted normalisation and contradicts the common belief that the amplitude of the observed galaxy velocity fields can be used to constrain the value of #OMEGA#_0. The small-scale pairwise velocity dispersion of the dark matter is somewhat larger than recent determinations from galaxy redshift surveys, but (orig.)120 refs.SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RR 4697(1048) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman