Black hole pulsars and monster shocks as outcomes of black hole--neutron star mergers

TL;DR

This paper uses magnetohydrodynamic simulations to explore how black hole--neutron star mergers can produce electromagnetic transients like fast radio bursts and gamma-ray emissions through magnetospheric dynamics and shocks.

Contribution

It reveals the formation of monster shocks and a transient pulsar-like state in black hole--neutron star mergers, predicting observable electromagnetic signals.

Findings

Formation of monster shocks in the magnetosphere.

Transient pulsar-like state around the black hole.

Predicted electromagnetic transients include radio and gamma-ray bursts.

Abstract

The merger of a black hole (BH) and a neutron star (NS) in most cases is expected to leave no material around the remnant BH; therefore, such events are often considered as sources of gravitational waves without electromagnetic counterparts. However, a bright counterpart can emerge if the NS is strongly magnetized, as its external magnetosphere can experience radiative shocks and magnetic reconnection during/after the merger. We use magnetohydrodynamic simulations in the dynamical spacetime of a merging BH--NS binary to investigate its magnetospheric dynamics. We find that compressive waves excited in the magnetosphere develop into monster shocks as they propagate outward. After swallowing the NS, the BH acquires a magnetosphere that quickly evolves into a split monopole configuration and then undergoes an exponential decay (balding), enabled by magnetic reconnection and also assisted by the ring-down of the remnant BH. This spinning BH drags the split monopole into rotation, forming a transient pulsar-like state. It emits a striped wind if the swallowed magnetic dipole moment is inclined to the spin axis. We predict two types of transients from this scenario: (1) a fast radio burst emitted by the shocks as they expand to large radii and (2) an X/$\gamma$-ray burst emitted by the $e^\pm$ outflow heated by magnetic dissipation.