Observational consequences of structured jets from neutron star mergers in the local Universe

TL;DR

This paper investigates the observational signatures of structured jets from neutron star mergers, predicting the fraction of joint GW-GRB detections, local short GRB rates, and the BNS merger rate based on the angular emission profile of GRB170817A.

Contribution

It provides new estimates for the fraction of BNS mergers with observable GRB counterparts and the local short GRB rate using a structured jet model based on GW170817.

Findings

Approximately 30% of BNS mergers will have observable GRB counterparts.

Around 10% of observed short GRBs occur within 200 Mpc.

Estimated BNS merger rate is about 500 Gpc$^{-3}$yr$^{-1}$.

Abstract

The recent multi-messenger discovery of binary neutron star (BNS) merger GW170817 showed that $\gamma$-ray emission in short GRBs is wider than the central energetic narrow cone, and weakly expands out to tens of degrees. Here we explore some of the observational consequences of this structured emission, taking the reconstructed angular emission profile of gamma-ray burst GRB170817A to be typical. We calculate the expected fraction of gravitational-wave observations from BNS mergers that will have an observed GRB counterpart to be $\sim30\%$, implying that joint gravitational-wave and GRB observations will be common. Further, we find that $\sim10\%$ of observed short GRBs occur within 200 Mpc. Finally, we estimate a BNS merger rate of $\sim500$ Gpc$^{-3}$yr$^{-1}$.