Evidence for the transition of a Jacobi ellipsoid into a Maclaurin spheroid in gamma-ray bursts

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the early emission and afterglow in certain gamma-ray bursts are powered by a neutron star transitioning from a Jacobi ellipsoid to a Maclaurin spheroid, emitting gravitational waves in the process.

Contribution

It introduces a model where the neutron star's shape evolution explains observed GRB features and predicts gravitational wave signals from this transition.

Findings

Neutron star transitions from Jacobi ellipsoid to Maclaurin spheroid in GRBs.

The process explains the timing and spectral features of GRB emission.

Potential gravitational wave detection from nearby sources is predicted.

Abstract

In the binary-driven hypernova (BdHN) scenario, long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) originate in a cataclysmic event that occurs in a binary system composed of a carbon-oxygen (CO) star and a neutron star (NS) companion in close orbit. The collapse of the CO star generates at its center a newborn NS ($\nu$NS), and a supernova (SN) explosion. Matter from the ejecta is accreted both onto the $\nu$NS because of fallback and onto the NS companion, leading to the collapse of the latter into a black hole (BH). Each of the ingredients of the above system leads to observable emission episodes in a GRB. In particular, the $\nu$NS is expected to show up (hereafter $\nu$NS-rise) in the early GRB emission, nearly contemporary or superimposed to the ultrarelativistic prompt emission (UPE) phase, but with a different spectral signature. Following the $\nu$NS-rise, the $\nu$NS powers the afterglow emission by injecting energy into the expanding ejecta leading to synchrotron radiation. We here show that the $\nu$NS-rise and the subsequent afterglow emission in both systems, GRB 180720B and GRB 190114C, are powered by the release of rotational energy of a Maclaurin spheroid, starting from the bifurcation point to the Jacobi ellipsoid sequence. This implies that the $\nu$NS evolves from a triaxial Jacobi configuration, prior to the $\nu$NS-rise, into the axially symmetric Maclaurin configuration observed in the GRB. The triaxial $\nu$NS configuration is short-lived (less than a second) due to a copious emission of gravitational waves, before the GRB emission, and it could be in principle detected for sources located at distances closer than $100$ Mpc. This appears to be a specific process of emission of gravitational waves in the BdHN I powering long GRBs.