Neutrino transport in general relativistic neutron star merger simulations

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current methods and challenges in modeling neutrino transport in general relativistic neutron star merger simulations, highlighting advances and limitations in capturing neutrino-matter interactions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the three main neutrino transport algorithms used in simulations and discusses their advantages, limitations, and the physical processes involved.

Findings

Neutrino modeling quality has improved significantly over the last decade.

Current simulations still struggle to incorporate all relevant neutrino interactions.

Different algorithms offer trade-offs between accuracy and computational cost.

Abstract

Numerical simulations of neutron star--neutron star and neutron star--black hole binaries play an important role in our ability to model gravitational wave and electromagnetic signals powered by these systems. These simulations have to take into account a wide range of physical processes including general relativity, magnetohydrodynamics, and neutrino radiation transport. The latter is particularly important in order to understand the properties of the matter ejected by many mergers, the optical/infrared signals powered by nuclear reactions in the ejecta, and the contribution of that ejecta to astrophysical nucleosynthesis. However, accurate evolutions of the neutrino transport equations that include all relevant physical processes remain beyond our current reach. In this review, I will discuss the current state of neutrino modeling in general relativistic simulations of neutron star mergers and of their post-merger remnants. I will focus on the three main types of algorithms used in simulations so far: leakage, moments, and Monte-Carlo scheme. I will review the advantages and limitations of each scheme, as well as the various neutrino-matter interactions that should be included in simulations. We will see that the quality of the treatment of neutrinos in merger simulations has greatly increased over the last decade, but also that many potentially important interactions remain difficult to take into account in simulations (pair annihilation, oscillations, inelastic scattering).