Neutrino Burst-Generated Gravitational Radiation From Collapsing Supermassive Stars

TL;DR

This paper estimates the gravitational wave signals generated by neutrino bursts during the collapse of supermassive stars, highlighting their detectability by future observatories like DECIGO up to high redshifts.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed estimates of gravitational wave signatures from neutrino bursts in collapsing supermassive stars, including their detectability with upcoming detectors.

Findings

Optimal mass range for neutrino emission during collapse.

Neutrino burst can produce detectable gravitational wave memory signals.

Potential detection up to redshift 13 with advanced DECIGO.

Abstract

We estimate the gravitational radiation signature of the electron/positron annihilation-driven neutrino burst accompanying the asymmetric collapse of an initially hydrostatic, radiation-dominated supermassive object suffering the Feynman-Chandrasekhar instability. An object with a mass $5\times10^4\,M_\odot<M<5\times10^5\,M_\odot$, with primordial metallicity, is an optimal case with respect to the fraction of its rest mass emitted in neutrinos as it collapses to a black hole: lower initial mass objects will be subject to scattering-induced neutrino trapping and consequently lower efficiency in this mode of gravitational radiation generation; while higher masses will not get hot enough to radiate significant neutrino energy before producing a black hole. The optimal case collapse will radiate several percent of the star's rest mass in neutrinos and, with an assumed small asymmetry in temperature at peak neutrino production, produces a characteristic linear memory gravitational wave burst signature. The timescale for this signature, depending on redshift, is $\sim1{\rm~s}$ to $10{\rm~s}$, optimal for proposed gravitational wave observatories like DECIGO. Using the response of that detector, and requiring a signal-to-noise ratio SNR $>$ 5, we estimate that collapse of a $\sim 5\times10^4\,M_\odot$ supermassive star could produce a neutrino burst-generated gravitational radiation signature detectable to redshift $z\lesssim7$. With the envisioned ultimate DECIGO design sensitivity, we estimate that the linear memory signal from these events could be detectable with SNR $> 5$ to $z \lesssim13$.