2006/01/31 by Krzysztof Belczynski, Rosalba Perna, Tomasz Bulik +3 · 8 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/505169
published as Astrophys.J.648:1110-1116,2006 · ApJ, in press
arxiv created 2006/05/27 · openalex publication_date 2006/09/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
We present a theoretical study of double compact objects as potential short/hard gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitors. An updated population synthesis code, StarTrack, is used to calculate properties of double neutron stars and black hole-neutron star binaries. We obtain their formation rates, estimate merger times, and finally predict their most likely merger locations and afterglow properties for different types of host galaxies. Our results serve for a direct comparison with the recent HETE-2 and Swift observations of several short bursts, for which afterglows and host galaxies were detected. We also discuss the possible constraints these observations put on the evolutionary models of double compact object formation. We emphasize that our double compact object models can successfully reproduce at the same time short GRBs within both young, star-forming galaxies (e.g., GRB 050709 and GRB 051221A), as well as within old, elliptical hosts (e.g., GRB 050724 and probably GRB 050509B).