Dynamical mass ejection from the merger of asymmetric binary neutron stars: Radiation-hydrodynamics study in general relativity

TL;DR

This study uses general relativistic radiation-hydrodynamics simulations to analyze how asymmetric binary neutron star mergers eject mass, revealing dependencies on mass ratio and equation of state that influence r-process element production.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of dynamical ejecta properties from asymmetric neutron star mergers considering different equations of state in a relativistic framework.

Findings

Ejecta mass depends on mass ratio and EOS, with soft EOS showing weak dependence.

Average electron fraction decreases with increasing asymmetry for soft EOS.

Ejecta mass exceeds 0.01 solar masses for soft EOS regardless of mass ratio.

Abstract

We perform neutrino radiation-hydrodynamics simulations for the merger of asymmetric binary neutron stars in numerical relativity. Neutron stars are modeled by soft and moderately stiff finite-temperature equations of state (EOS). We find that the properties of the dynamical ejecta such as the total mass, neutron richness profile, and specific entropy profile depend on the mass ratio of the binary systems for a given EOS in a unique manner. For the soft EOS (SFHo), the total ejecta mass depends weakly on the mass ratio, but the average of electron number per baryon ($Y_e$) and specific entropy ($s$) of the ejecta decreases significantly with the increase of the degree of mass asymmetry. For the stiff EOS (DD2), with the increase of the mass asymmetry degree, the total ejecta mass significantly increases while the average of $Y_e$ and $s$ moderately decreases. We find again that only for the soft EOS (SFHo), the total ejecta mass exceeds $0.01M_\odot$ irrespective of the mass ratio chosen in this paper. The ejecta have a variety of electron number per baryon with its average approximately between $Y_e \sim 0.2$ and $\sim 0.3$ irrespective of the EOS employed, which is well-suited for the production of the r-process heavy elements (second and third peaks), although its averaged value decreases with the increase of the degree of mass asymmetry.