Dynamical ejecta synchrotron emission as possible contributor to the changing behaviour of GRB170817A

TL;DR

This paper explores how dynamical ejecta synchrotron emission could explain the changing X-ray behavior of GRB170817A, offering new insights into binary neutron star merger parameters.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that non-thermal emission from dynamical ejecta can account for recent observational changes in GRB170817A, constraining binary neutron star merger models.

Findings

Equal mass models with soft EOS are disfavored.

High mass ratio models with stiff EOS are inconsistent with observations.

Moderate stiffness and mass ratio models fit the data well.

Abstract

Over the past three years, the fading non-thermal emission from the GW170817 remained generally consistent with the afterglow powered by synchrotron radiation produced by the interaction of the structured jet with the ambient medium. Recent observations by Hajela et al. (2021) indicate the change in temporal and spectral behaviour in the X-ray band. We show that the new observations are compatible with the emergence of a new component due to non-thermal emission from the fast tail of the dynamical ejecta of ab-initio binary neutron star (BNS) merger simulations. This provides a new avenue to constrain binary parameters. Specifically, we find that equal mass models with a soft equation of state (EOS) and high mass ratio models with stiff EOS are disfavored as they typically predict afterglows that peak too early to explain the recent observations. Moderate stiffness and mass ratio models, instead, tend to be in a good overall agreement with the data.