Kilonova and Optical Afterglow from Binary Neutron Star Mergers. I. Luminosity Function and Color Evolution

Understand

In the first work of this series, we adopt a GW170817-like, viewing-angle-dependent kilonova model and the standard afterglow model with the lightcurve distribution based on the properties of cosmological short gamma-ray bursts afterglows to simulate the luminosity functions and color evolution of both kilonovae and optical afterglow emissions from binary neutron star (BNS) mergers.

• {We find that $\sim10\%$ afterglows are brighter than the associated kilonovae at the peak time, most of which are on-axis or nearly-on-axis.
• These kilonovae would be significantly polluted by the associated afterglow emission.
• Only at large viewing angles with $\sin\theta_{\rm v}\gtrsim 0.20$, the EM signals of most BNS mergers would be kilonova-dominated and some off-axis afterglows may emerge at $\sim5-10$\,day after the mergers.} At brightness dimmer than $\sim23-24$\,mag, according to their luminosity functions, the number of afterglows is much larger than that of kilonovae.