2024/12/10 by Perna, Rosalba, Gottlieb, Ore, Shukla, Estuti +1 · 1 citation
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.07846
The fate of the binary neutron star (NS) merger remnants hinges sensitively upon the NS equation of state and the threshold mass, M\rm ls, that separates a long-lived from a short-lived NS remnant. The nature of the electromagnetic counterparts is also influenced by the remnant type, particularly in determining whether a gamma-ray burst from a compact binary merger (cbGRB) is of short or long duration. We propose a novel approach to probe M\rm ls by linking it to the estimated observed ratio of long to short cbGRBs. We find that current observations broadly favour a relatively high value for this transition, M\rm ls≃ 1.3 M\rm TOV, for which M\rm TOV \lesssim 2.6 M_\odot , consistent with numerical simulations, as also shown here. Our results disfavour nuclear physics scenarios that would lead to catastrophic pressure loss at a few times nuclear density and temperatures of tens of MeV, leading to a rapid gravitational collapse of binaries with total mass M \lesssim 1.3 M\rm TOV. Future individual gravitational wave events with on-axis cbGRBs can further bound M\rm ls.