Coalescing neutron star binaries are believed to be the most reliable sources for ground-based detectors of gravitational waves and likely progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts. In the process of coalescence, magnetic fields of neutron stars can induce interesting observational manifestations and affect the form of gravitational wave signal. In this papaer we use the population synthesis method to model the expected distribution of neutron star magnetic fields during the coalescence under different assumptions on the initial parameters of neutron stars and their magnetic field evolution. We discuss possible elecotrmagnetic phenomena preceding the coalescence of magnetized neutron star binaries and the effect of magnetic field on the gravitational wave signal. We find that a log-normal (Gaussian in logarithms) distribution of the initial magnetic fields of neutron stars, which agrees with observed properties of radio pulsars, produces the distribution of the magnetic field energy during the coalescence that adequately describes the observed luminosity function of short gamma-ray bursts under different assumptions on the field evolution and initial parameters of neutron stars. This agreement lends further support to the model of coalescing neutron star binaries as progenitors of gamma-ray bursts.
This contribution summarizes, as of early 2008, the observational and theoretical understanding of the origin, physics, and emission properties of short gamma-ray bursts in both electromagnetic and gravitational waves.
As evidenced by the coincident detections of GW170817 and GRB 170817A, short gamma-ray bursts are likely associated with neutron star-neutron star merger events. Although rare, some bursts display episodes of early emission, with precursor flares being observed up to $\sim 10$ seconds prior to the main burst. As the stars inspiral due to gravitational wave emission, the exertion of mutual tidal forces leads to the excitation of stellar oscillation modes, which may come into resonance with the orbital motion. Mode amplitudes increase substantially during a period of resonance as tidal energy is…
Coalescing neutron star (NS)-black hole (BH) binaries are promising sources of gravitational-waves (GWs) to be detected within the next few years by current GW observatories. If the NS is tidally disrupted outside the BH innermost stable circular orbit, an accretion torus may form, and this could eventually power a short gamma-ray burst (SGRB). The observation of an SGRB in coincidence with gravitational radiation from an NS-BH coalescence would confirm the association between the two phenomena and also give us new insights on NS physics. We present here a new method to measure NS radii and th…
In some short gamma-ray bursts, precursor flares occurring $\sim$ seconds prior to the main episode have been observed. These flares may then be associated with the last few cycles of the inspiral when the orbital frequency is a few hundred Hz. During these final cycles, tidal forces can resonantly excite quasi-normal modes in the inspiralling stars, leading to a rapid increase in their amplitude. It has been shown that these modes can exert sufficiently strong strains onto the neutron star crust to instigate yieldings. Due to the typical frequencies of $g$-modes being $\sim 100\text{ Hz}$, th…
The possibility that long tidal tails formed during compact object mergers may power optical transients through the decay of freshly synthesized r-process material is investigated. Precise modeling of the merger dynamics allows for a realistic determination of the thermodynamic conditions in the ejected debris. The results of hydrodynamic and full nuclear network calculations are combined to calculate the resultant r-process abundances and the heating of the material by their decays. The subsequent homologous structure is mapped into a radiative transfer code to synthesize emergent model light…
Using 72 Short Gamma Ray Bursts (SGRBs) with well determined spectral data observed by BATSE, we determine their redshift and the luminosity by applying $E_p$--$L_p$ correlation for SGRBs found by \cite{tsutsui13}. For 53 SGRBs with the observed flux brighter than $4 \times 10^{-6}~{\rm erg~cm^{-2}s^{-1}}$, the cumulative redshift distribution up to $z=1$ agrees well with that of 22 {\it Swift}~SGRBs. This suggests that the redshift determination by the $E_p$--$L_p$ correlation for SGRBs works well. The minimum event rate at $z=0$ is estimated as $ρ_{SGRB}(0) = 6.3_{-3.9}^{+3.1} \times 10^{-10…
Black-hole neutron-star coalescing binaries have been invoked as one of the most suitable scenario to explain the emission of short gamma-ray bursts. Indeed, if the black-hole which forms after the merger, is surrounded by a massive disk, neutrino annihilation processes may produce high-energy and collimated electromagnetic radiation. In this paper, we devise a new procedure, to be used in the search for gravitational waves from black-hole-neutron-star binaries, to assign a probability that a detected gravitational signal is associated to the formation of an accreting disk, massive enough to p…
We propose a procedure to be used in the search for gravitational waves from black hole-neutron star coalescing binaries, in coincidence with short gamma-ray bursts. It is based on two recently proposed semi-analytic fits, one reproducing the mass of the remnant disk surrounding the black hole which forms after the merging as a function of some binary parameters, the second relating the neutron star compactness, i.e. the ratio of mass and radius, with its tidal deformability. Using a Fisher matrix analysis and the two fits, we assign a probability that the emitted gravitational signal is assoc…
The recent measurement of the Shapiro delay in the radio pulsar PSR J1614-2230 yielded a mass of 1.97 +/- 0.04 M_sun, making it the most massive pulsar known to date. Its mass is high enough that, even without an accompanying measurement of the stellar radius, it has a strong impact on our understanding of nuclear matter, gamma-ray bursts, and the generation of gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars. This single high mass value indicates that a transition to quark matter in neutron-star cores can occur at densities comparable to the nuclear saturation density only if the quarks are …
We discuss the possibility to obtain an electromagnetic emission accompanying the gravitational waves emitted in the coalescence of a compact binary system. Motivated by the existence of black hole configurations with open magnetic field lines along the rotation axis, we consider a magnetic dipole in the system, the evolution of which leads to (i) electromagnetic radiation, and (ii) a contribution to the gravitational radiation, the luminosity of both being evaluated. Starting from the observations on magnetars, we impose upper limits for both the electromagnetic emission and the contribution …
In a new classification of merging binary neutron stars (NSs) we separate short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in two sub-classes. The ones with $E_{iso}\lesssim10^{52}$ erg coalesce to form a massive NS and are indicated as short gamma-ray flashes (S-GRFs). The hardest, with $E_{iso}\gtrsim10^{52}$ erg, coalesce to form a black hole (BH) and are indicated as genuine short-GRBs (S-GRBs). Within the fireshell model, S-GRBs exhibit three different components: the P-GRB emission, observed at the transparency of a self-accelerating baryon-$e^+e^-$ plasma; the prompt emission, originating from the interac…
Gravitational waves (GW) can be emitted from coalescing neutron star (NS) and black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries, which are thought to be the sources of short hard gamma ray bursts (SHBs). The gamma ray fireballs seem to be beamed into a small solid angle and therefore only a fraction of detectable GW events is expected to be observationally coincident with SHBs. Similarly ultrahigh energy (UHE) neutrino signals associated with gamma ray bursts (GRBs) could fail to be corroborated by prompt gamma-ray emission if the latter is beamed in a narrower cone than the neutrinos. Alternative ways…
Coalescing neutron-star-black-hole (NS-BH) binaries are a promising source of gravitational-wave (GW) signals detectable with large-scale laser interferometers such as Advanced LIGO and Virgo. They are also one of the main short gamma-ray burst (SGRB) progenitor candidates. If the BH tidally disrupts its companion, an SGRB may be ignited when a sufficiently massive accretion disk forms around the remnant BH. Detecting an NS-BH coalescence both in the GW and electromagnetic (EM) spectrum offers a wealth of information about the nature of the source. How much can actually be inferred from a join…
Progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts are thought to be neutron stars coalescing with their companion black hole or neutron star, which are one of the main gravitational wave sources. We have devised a Bayesian framework for combining gamma-ray burst and gravitational wave information that allows us to probe short gamma-ray burst luminosities. We show that combined short gamma-ray burst and gravitational wave observations not only improve progenitor distance and inclination angle estimates, they also allow the isotropic luminosities of short gamma-ray bursts to be determined without the need f…
The generation of the circular polarization of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) photons is discussed in this paper via their interactions with astroparticles in the presence or absence of background fields such as magnetic fields and non-commutative space time geometry. Solving quantum Boltzmann equation for GRB-photons as a photon ensemble, we discuss the generation of circular polarization (as Faraday conversion phase shift $Δϕ_{FC}$) of GRBs in the following cases: (i) intermediate interactions, i.e. the Compton scattering of GRBs in the galaxy cluster magnetic field and in the presence of non-commuta…
Short Gamma-Ray Burst (SGRB) progenitors have long been thought to be coalescing binary systems of two Neutron Stars (NSNS) or a Neutron Star and a Black Hole (NSBH). The August 17$^{\rm th}$, 2017 detection of the GW170817 gravitational-wave signal by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo in coincidence with the electromagnetic observation of the SGRB GRB 170817A confirmed this scenario and provided new physical information on the nature of these astronomical events. We use SGRB observations by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Burst Alert Telescope and GW170817/GRB 170817A observational data to …
Mergers of two compact objects, like two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole, are the probable progenitor of short gamma-ray bursts. These events are also promising sources of gravitational waves, that are currently motivating related searches by an international network of gravitational wave detectors. Here we describe a search for gravitational waves from the in-spiral phase of two coalescing compact objects, in coincidence with short GRBs occurred during during LIGO's fifth science run and Virgo's first science run. The search includes 22 GRBs for which data from more than one …
Data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor satellite observatory suggested that the recently discovered gravitational wave source, a pair of two coalescing black holes, was related to a gamma-ray burst. The observed high-energy electromagnetic radiation (above 50 keV) originated from a weak transient source and lasted for about 1 second. Its localization is consistent with the direction to GW150914. We speculate about the possible scenario for the formation of a gamma-ray burst accompanied by the gravitational-wave signal. Our model invokes a tight binary system consisting of a massive star a…
It is expected on both evolutionary and empirical grounds that many merging neutron star (NS) binaries are composed of a highly magnetized NS in orbit with a relatively low magnetic field NS. I study the magnetic interactions of these binaries using the framework of a unipolar inductor model. The e.m.f. generated across the non-magnetic NS as it moves through the magnetosphere sets up a circuit connecting the two stars. The exact features of this circuit depend on the uncertain resistance in the space between the stars R_space. Nevertheless, I show that there are interesting observational and/…
We investigate the prospects for joint low-latency gravitational wave (GW) detection and prompt electromagnetic (EM) follow-up observations of coalescing binary neutron stars (BNSs). For BNS mergers associated with short duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs), we for the first time evaluate the feasibility of rapid EM follow-ups to capture the prompt emission, early engine activity or reveal any potential by-products such as magnetars or fast radio bursts. To achieve our goal, we first simulate a population of coalescing BNSs using realistic distributions of source parameters and estimate the detec…
We present a detailed assessment of the dynamical pathways leading to the coalescence of compact objects in Globular Clusters (GCs) and Short Gamma-Ray Burst (SGRB) production. We consider primordial binaries, dynamically formed binaries (through tidal two-body and three-body exchange interactions) and direct impacts of compact objects (WD/NS/BH). We show that if the primordial binary fraction is small, close encounters dominate the production rate of coalescing compact systems. We find that the two dominant channels are the interaction of field NSs with dynamically formed binaries, and two-bo…
Precise and reliable measurements of the masses and radii of neutron stars with a variety of masses would provide valuable guidance for improving models of the properties of cold matter with densities above the saturation density of nuclear matter. Several different approaches for measuring the masses and radii of neutron stars have been tried or proposed, including analyzing the X-ray fluxes and spectra of the emission from neutron stars in quiescent low-mass X-ray binary systems and thermonuclear burst sources; fitting the energy-dependent X-ray waveforms of rotation-powered millisecond puls…
P-stars are compact relativistic stars made of deconfined up and down quarks in a chromomagnetic condensate proposed by us long time ago. P-stars do not admit a critical mass thereby they are able to overcome the gravitational collapse to black holes. In this work we discuss in greater details our theoretical proposal for P-stars. We point out that our theory for compact relativistic stars stems from our own understanding of the confining quantum vacuum supported by estensive non-perturbative numerical simulations of Quantum ChromoDynamics on the lattice. We compare our proposal with the const…
Neutron stars (NSs) are extraordinary not only because they are the densest form of matter in the visible Universe but also because they can generate B-fields ten orders of magnitude larger than those currently constructed on Earth. The combination of extreme gravity with the enormous electromagnetic (EM) fields gives rise to spectacular phenomena like those observed on August 2017 with the merger of a binary neutron star (NSNS) system, an event that generated a gravitational wave (GW) signal, a short $γ$-ray burst (sGRB), and a kilonova. This event serves as the highlight so far of the era of…
The first observations by a worldwide network of advanced interferometric gravitational wave detectors offer a unique opportunity for the astronomical community. At design sensitivity, these facilities will be able to detect coalescing binary neutron stars to distances approaching 400 Mpc, and neutron star-black hole systems to 1 Gpc. Both of these sources are associated with gamma ray bursts which are known to emit across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Gravitational wave detections provide the opportunity for "multi-messenger" observations, combining gravitational wave with electromagne…
`Internal plateau' followed by a sharp decay is commonly seen in short gamma-ray burst (GRB) light curves. The plateau component is usually interpreted as the dipole emission from a supra-massive magnetar, and the sharp decay may imply the collapse of the magnetar to a black hole (BH). Fall-back accretion onto the new-born BH could produce long-lasting activities via the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) process. The magnetic flux accumulated near the BH would be confined by the accretion disks for a period of time. As the accretion rate decreases, the magnetic flux is strong enough to obstruct gas infall…
Large-area sky surveys show that massive galaxies undergo at least one major merger in a Hubble time. Ongoing pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments are aimed at measuring the gravitational wave (GW) emission from binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centres of galaxy merger remnants. In this paper, using the latest observational estimates for a range of galaxy properties and scaling relations, we predict the amplitude of the GW background generated by the binary SMBH population. We also predict the numbers of individual binary SMBH GW sources. We predict the characteristic strain amp…
Short gamma-ray bursts require a rotating black hole, surrounded by a magnetized relativistic accretion disk, such as the one formed by coalescing binary neutron stars or neutron star - black hole systems. The accretion onto a Kerr black hole is the mechanism of launching a baryon-free relativistic jet. An additional uncollimated outflow, consisting of sub-relativistic neutron-rich material which becomes unbound by thermal, magnetic and viscous forces, is responsible for blue and red kilonova. We explore the formation, composition and geometry of the secondary outflow by means of simulating ac…
Possible models for the generation of electromagnetic (EM) radiation during the coalescence of neutron star-black hole binaries are considered. The mass of the remnant disk around the black hole during the coalescence of neutron stars and black holes is calculated by taking into account the equation of state for neutron stars and the rotation of the binary components before the coalescence. The parameters of binary systems before the coalescence (the mass ratio, the component rotation, the neutron star magnetic field) are calculated by the population synthesis method. The derived mass of the r…
