The lifetime of binary neutron star merger remnants

TL;DR

This paper presents an analytic relation for the lifetime of neutron star merger remnants based on observational and simulation data, aiding in understanding post-merger evolution and constraining dense matter equations of state.

Contribution

It introduces a simple analytic formula for the remnant lifetime as a function of initial neutron star mass, integrating observational and simulation data.

Findings

Derived a universal relation for merger remnant lifetime

Applied the relation to GW170817 to constrain dense matter EOS

Covered a wide range of physical effects and equations of state

Abstract

Although the main features of the evolution of binary neutron star systems are now well established, many details are still subject to debate, especially regarding the post-merger phase. In particular, the lifetime of the hyper-massive neutron stars formed after the merger is very hard to predict. In this work, we provide a simple analytic relation for the lifetime of the merger remnant as function of the initial mass of the neutron stars. This relation results from a joint fit of data from observational evidence and from various numerical simulations. In this way, a large range of collapse times, physical effects and equation of states is covered. Finally, we apply the relation to the gravitational wave event GW170817 to constrain the equation of state of dense matter.