GW170817 and the prospect of forming supramassive remnants in neutron star mergers

TL;DR

This paper investigates the formation of supramassive neutron stars in mergers like GW170817, analyzing how angular momentum and mass distribution influence their remnants and constraining the maximum non-rotating neutron star mass.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the conditions under which supramassive neutron stars form in mergers and constrains the maximum mass of non-rotating neutron stars based on GW170817 data.

Findings

Most EoS models predict supramassive NSs in over half of mergers at high angular momentum.

The presence of supramassive NSs depends on EoS and binary mass distribution at lower angular momentum.

Estimated maximum mass of non-rotating NSs is less than 2.19-2.32 solar masses, depending on angular momentum assumptions.

Abstract

The gravitational wave data of GW170817 favor the equation of state (EoS) models that predict compact neutron stars (NSs), consistent with the radius constraints from X-ray observations. Motivated by such a remarkable progress, we examine the fate of the remnants formed in NS mergers and focus on the roles of the angular momentum and the mass distribution of the binary NSs. In the mass shedding limit (for which the dimensionless angular momentum equals to the Keplerian value, i.e., $j=j_{\rm Kep}$), the adopted { seven EoS models, except H4 and ALF2,} yield supramassive NSs in more than half of the mergers. However, for $j\lesssim 0.7j_{\rm Kep}$, the presence or absence of a non-negligible fraction of supramassive NSs formed in the mergers depends sensitively on both the EoS and the mass distribution of the binary systems. The NS mergers with a total gravitational mass $\leq 2.6M_\odot$ are found to be able to shed valuable light on both the EoS model and the angular momentum of the remnants if supramassive NSs are still absent. We have also discussed the uncertainty on estimating the maximum gravitational mass of non-rotating NSs ($M_{\rm max}$) due to the unknown $j$ of the pre-collapse remnants. With the data of GW170817 and the assumption of the mass loss of $0.03M_\odot$, we have $M_{\rm max}<(2.19,~2.32)M_\odot$ (90\% confidence level) for $j=(1.0,~0.8)j_{\rm Kep}$, respectively.