The Gravitational waves merger time distribution of binary neutron star systems

Understand

Binary neutron stars (BNS) mergers are prime sites for $r$-process nucleosynthesis.

• Their rate determines the chemical evolution of heavy elements in the Milky Way.
• The merger rate of BNS is a convolution of their birth rate and the gravitational radiation spiral-in delay time.
• Using the observed population of Galactic BNS we show here that the lifetimes of pulsars in observed BNSs are sufficiently short that the ages of BNSs have little to no effect on the observed merger time distribution.