Long-Term Simulations of Dynamical Ejecta: Homologous Expansion and Kilonova Properties

TL;DR

This study extends numerical-relativity simulations of neutron star mergers to longer durations, finding that deviations from homologous expansion become negligible after 80ms, thus validating common kilonova modeling assumptions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the feasibility of longer dynamical ejecta simulations and assesses the impact of non-homologous expansion on kilonova light curves.

Findings

Deviations from homologous expansion are about 30% at 100ms post-merger.

Kilonova light curves are unaffected by these deviations for extraction times after 80ms.

Longer simulations confirm the validity of homologous expansion assumptions in kilonova modeling.

Abstract

Accurate numerical-relativity simulations are essential to study the rich phenomenology of binary neutron star systems. In this work, we focus on the material that is dynamically ejected during the merger process and on the kilonova transient it produces. Typically, radiative transfer simulations of kilonova light curves from ejecta make the assumption of homologous expansion, but this condition might not always be met at the end of usually very short numerical-relativity simulations. In this article, we adjust the infrastructure of the BAM code to enable longer simulations of the dynamical ejecta with the aim of investigating when the condition of homologous expansion is satisfied. In fact, we observe that the deviations from a perfect homologous expansion are about 30% at roughly 100ms after the merger. To determine how these deviations might affect the calculation of kilonova light curves, we extract the ejecta data for different reference times and use them as input for radiative transfer simulations. Our results show that the light curves for extraction times later than 80ms after the merger deviate by less than 0.4mag and are mostly consistent with numerical noise. Accordingly, deviations from the homologous expansion for the dynamical ejecta component are negligible for the purpose of kilonova modelling.