Can black-hole neutrino-cooled disks power short gamma-ray bursts?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether neutrino-cooled accretion disks around stellar-mass black holes can power short gamma-ray bursts, considering observational constraints and potential alternative mechanisms.

Contribution

It estimates disk masses from observational data and discusses the need for additional processes to explain SGRBs with realistic black hole parameters.

Findings

Some SGRBs require disk masses exceeding simulation limits.

Neutrino emission alone may be insufficient for some SGRBs.

Alternative mechanisms might enhance neutrino emission or energy output.

Abstract

Stellar-mass black holes (BHs) surrounded by neutrino-dominated accretion flows (NDAFs) are the plausible candidates to power gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) via neutrinos emission and their annihilation. The progenitors of short-duration GRBs (SGRBs) are generally considered to be compact binaries mergers. According to the simulation results, the disk mass of the NDAF has been limited after merger events. We can estimate such disk mass by using the current SGRB observational data and fireball model. The results show that the disk mass of a certain SGRB mainly depends on its output energy, jet opening angle, and central BH characteristics. Even for the extreme BH parameters, some SGRBs require massive disks, which approach or exceed the limits in simulations. We suggest that there may exist alternative magnetohydrodynamic processes or some mechanisms increasing the neutrino emission to produce SGRBs with the reasonable BH parameters and disk mass.