The Fate of the Compact Remnant in Neutron Star Mergers

Understand

Neutron star (binary neutron star and neutron star - black hole) mergers are believed to produce short-duration gamma-ray bursts.

• They are also believed to be the dominant source of gravitational waves to be detected by the advanced LIGO and the dominant source of the heavy r-process elements in the universe.
• Whether or not these mergers produce short-duration GRBs depends sensitively on the fate of the core of the remnant (whether, and how quickly, it forms a black hole).
• In this paper, we combine the results of merger calculations and equation of state studies to determine the fate of the cores of neutron star mergers.