Numerical simulations of the jet dynamics and synchrotron radiation of binary neutron star merger event GW170817/GRB170817A

Understand

We present numerical simulations of energetic flows propagating through the debris cloud of a binary neutron star (BNS) merger.

• Starting from the scale of the central engine, we use a moving-mesh hydrodynamics code to simulate the complete dynamical evolution of the produced relativistic jets.
• We compute synchrotron emission directly from the simulations and present multi-band light curves of the early (sub-day) through late (weeks to years) afterglow stages.
• Our work systematically compares two distinct models for the central engine, referred to as the narrow and wide engine scenario, which is associated with a successful structured jet and a quasi-isotropic explosion respectively.