Binary neutron star mergers: a jet engine for short gamma-ray bursts

Understand

We perform magnetohydrodynamic simulations in full general relativity (GRMHD) of quasi-circular, equal-mass, binary neutron stars that undergo merger.

• The initial stars are irrotational, $n=1$ polytropes and are magnetized.
• We explore two types of magnetic-field geometries: one where each star is endowed with a dipole magnetic field extending from the interior into the exterior, as in a pulsar, and the other where the dipole field is initially confined to the interior.
• In both cases the adopted magnetic fields are initially dynamically unimportant.