2012/11/03 by Chris L. Fryer, C. L. Fryer, Krzysztof Belczyński +7 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Afterglow #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Common envelope #Computer science #Envelope (radar) #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Helium #Neutron star #Physics #Population #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Stars #Telecommunications #White dwarf #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/764/2/181
10 pages, submitted to ApJ
arxiv created 2012/11/03 · openalex publication_date 2013/02/05 · arxiv updated 2015/06/12 · openalex created_date 2020/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The helium-merger gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor is produced by the rapid accretion onto a compact remnant (neutron star or black hole) when it undergoes a common envelope inspiral with its companion's helium core. This merger phase produces a very distinct environment around these outbursts and recent observations suggest that, in some cases, we are detecting the signatures of the past merger in the GRB afterglow. These observations allow us, for the first time, to study the specific features of the helium-merger progenitor. In this paper, we couple population synthesis calculations to our current understanding of GRB engines and common envelope evolution to make observational predictions for the helium-merger GRB population. Many mergers do not produce GRB outbursts and we discuss the implications of these mergers with the broader population of astrophysical transients.