Radio forensics could unmask nearby off-axis gamma-ray bursts

Bartos, I.; Lee, K. H.; Corsi, A.; Márka, Z.; Márka, S.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stz719

Cited by 21 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 104 publications

(161 reference statements)

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“…). One natural way for this to happen is if these GRBs are viewed slightly off-axis from the cores of their jets (see e.g., Bartos et al 2019;Mandhai et al 2019;Dichiara et al 2020).…”

Section: Exceptional Grbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready, Set, Launch: Time Interval between a Binary Neutron Star Merger and Short Gamma-Ray Burst Jet Formation

Beniamini

Duran

Πετροπούλου

et al. 2020

ApJL

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The joint detection of GW170817/GRB 170817 confirmed the long-standing theory that binary neutron star mergers produce short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) jets that can successfully break out of the surrounding ejecta. At the same time, the association with a kilonova provided unprecedented information regarding the physical properties (such as masses and velocities) of the different ejecta constituents. Combining this knowledge with the observed luminosities and durations of cosmological sGRBs detected by the Burst Alert Telescope onboard the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, we revisit the breakout conditions of sGRB jets. Assuming self-collimation of sGRB jets does not play a critical role, we find that the time interval between the binary merger and the launch of a typical sGRB jet is 0.1 s. We also show that for a fraction of at least~30% of sGRBs, the usually adopted assumption of static ejecta is inconsistent with observations, even if the polar ejecta mass is an order of magnitude smaller than that in GRB 170817. Our results disfavor magnetar central engines for powering cosmological sGRBs, limit the amount of energy deposited in the cocoon prior to breakout, and suggest that the observed delay of ∼1.7s in GW170817/GRB 170817 between the gravitational wave and gamma-ray signals is likely dominated by the propagation time of the jet to the gamma-ray production site.Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Gamma-ray bursts (629); Relativistic jets (1390); Neutron stars (1108); Gravitational wave sources (677); Astrophysical black holes (98)

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“…). One natural way for this to happen is if these GRBs are viewed slightly off-axis from the cores of their jets (see e.g., Bartos et al 2019;Mandhai et al 2019;Dichiara et al 2020).…”

Section: Exceptional Grbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready, Set, Launch: Time Interval between a Binary Neutron Star Merger and Short Gamma-Ray Burst Jet Formation

Beniamini

Duran

Πετροπούλου

et al. 2020

ApJL

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“…Radio flares from neutron star mergers thus remain an outstanding possibility yet to be discovered, not just for GW170817 but for any merger. A successful observation requires a nearby event within 200 Mpc (Hotokezaka et al 2016), much closer than short GRBs identified so far other than GW170817 (albeit this could be due to selection effects (Bartos et al 2019;Gupte & Bartos 2018)), and a circum-merger density of 10 −2 cm −3 , greater than the density for GW170817 and many other short GRBs (Fong et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Taking the second observation to be VLASS epoch 2, which was taken to occur 32 months after epoch 1 and have the same sensitivity of 120 µJy, we found that only 2.5 +8.2 −2.3 neutron star mergers will appear as transients, making this strategy risky. Therefore, we considered a targeted VLA followup of radio sources, with observations taking place during the summer of 2021, and assuming a sensitivity of 3 µJy (Bartos et al 2019). We found that such a targeted follow-up will be able to establish 17 +56 −15 radio signals to have originated from neutron star mergers.…”

Section: Detection Rate Estimation Using the Vlass Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1). Such emission, which we will refer to as a radio flare, is emitted isotropically and can last for years after the merger, making it a promising target for follow-up observations (Hotokezaka et al 2016;Bartos et al 2019). However, the radio flux strongly depends on the density of the interstellar medium, and detection is * imrebartos@ufl.edu challenging at the low densities of n ∼ 10 −4 cm −3 found for GW170817 (Lamb et al 2019;Margutti et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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FIRST J1419+3940 as the First Observed Radio Flare from a Neutron Star Merger

Lee,

Bartos,

Privon

et al. 2020

Preprint

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During their violent merger, two neutron stars can shed a few percent of their mass. As this ejecta expands, it collides with the surrounding interstellar gas, producing a slowly-fading radio flare that lasts for years. Radio flares uniquely probe the neutron star merger populations as many events from past decades could still be detectable. Nonetheless, no radio flare observation has been reported to date. Here we show that the radio transient FIRST J1419+3940, first observed in 1993 and still detectable, likely originated from a neutron star merger. We carry out numerical simulations of neutron star merger ejecta to demonstrate that the observed radio light curve is well reproduced by a merger model with astrophysically expected parameters. We find that a neutron star merger model is a priori more likely and provides a better fit to the data than the alternative explanation-the afterglow of an off-axis long gamma-ray burst. Near-future observations could unambiguously establish to the FIRST J1419+3940 radio transient's origin. We show that existing radio surveys likely already recorded multiple radio flares, informing us of the origin and properties of neutrons tar mergers and their role in the nucleosynthesis of the heaviest elements in the Universe.

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“…One natural way for this to happen, is if these GRBs are viewed slightly off-axis from the cores of their jets (see e.g. Beniamini et al 2019b;Mandhai et al 2019;Bartos et al 2019;Dichiara et al 2019).…”

Section: Exceptional Grbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready, set, launch: time interval between BNS merger and short GRB jet formation

Beniamini,

Duran,

Petropoulou

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The joint detection of GW 170817/GRB 170817 confirmed the long-standing theory that binary neutron star mergers produce short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) jets that can successfully break out of the surrounding ejecta. At the same time, the association with a kilonova provided unprecedented information regarding the physical properties (such as masses and velocities) of the different ejecta constituents. Combining this knowledge with the observed luminosities and durations of cosmological sGRBs detected by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) onboard the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, we revisit the breakout conditions of sGRB jets. We find that the time interval between the binary merger and the launching of a typical sGRB jet is 0.1 s. We also show that for a fraction of at least ∼ 30% of sGRBs, the usually adopted assumption of static ejecta is inconsistent with observations, even if the polar ejecta mass is an order of magnitude smaller than the one in GRB 170817. Our results disfavour magnetar central engines for powering cosmological sGRBs, limit the amount of energy deposited in the cocoon prior to breakout, and suggest that the observed delay of ∼ 1.7 s in GW 170817 /GRB 170817 between the gravitational wave and γ-ray signals is likely dominated by the propagation time of the jet to the γ-ray production site.

show abstract

Radio forensics could unmask nearby off-axis gamma-ray bursts

Cited by 21 publications

References 104 publications

Ready, Set, Launch: Time Interval between a Binary Neutron Star Merger and Short Gamma-Ray Burst Jet Formation

Ready, Set, Launch: Time Interval between a Binary Neutron Star Merger and Short Gamma-Ray Burst Jet Formation

FIRST J1419+3940 as the First Observed Radio Flare from a Neutron Star Merger

Ready, set, launch: time interval between BNS merger and short GRB jet formation

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