On the diversity of magnetar-driven kilonovae

Understand

A non-negligible fraction of binary neutron star mergers are expected to form long-lived neutron star remnants, dramatically altering the multi-messenger signatures of a merger.

• Here, we extend existing models for magnetar-driven kilonovae and explore the diversity of kilonovae and kilonova afterglows.
• Focusing on the role of the (uncertain) magnetic field strength, we study the resulting electromagnetic signatures as a function of the external dipolar and internal toroidal fields.
• These two parameters govern, respectively, the competition between magnetic-dipole spindown and gravitational-wave spindown (due to magnetic-field deformation) of the rapidly-rotating remnant.