Collapsar Disk Outflows III: Detectable Neutrino and Gravitational Wave Signatures

TL;DR

This paper models neutrino and gravitational wave signals from accretion disks in collapsars, predicting detectable signals within our galaxy and nearby, which can reveal details about the disk dynamics and explosion mechanism.

Contribution

It provides detailed simulations of neutrino and GW signals from collapsar disks, highlighting their detectability and the information they carry about disk oscillations and explosion physics.

Findings

Neutrino signals are detectable within 10-100 kpc by IceCube.

GW signals during NDAF phase are detectable in the galaxy.

Shock oscillations produce detectable time variations in signals.

Abstract

We investigate the neutrino and gravitational wave (GW) signals from accretion disks formed during the failed collapse of a rotating massive star (a collapsar). Following black hole formation, a neutrino-cooled, shocked accretion disk forms, which displays non-spherical oscillations for a period of seconds before becoming advective and exploding the star. We compute the neutrino and GW signals (matter quadrupole, frequencies $\lesssim 100$ Hz) from collapsar disks using global axisymmetric, viscous hydrodynamic simulations. The neutrino signal with typical energies of O$(10)$ MeV is maximal during the neutrino-cooled (NDAF) phase that follows shock formation. This phase lasts for a few seconds and is easily detectable within O$(10-100)$ kpc by the IceCube Neutrino Telescope. Additional neutrino signatures from a precursor equatorial shock and by stochastic accretion plumes during the advective phase are detectable within the galaxy. The GW signal during the NDAF phase is detectable in the galaxy by current and next-generation ground-based observatories. The explosion (memory) GW signal is similar to that of standard core-collapse supernovae and can be probed with a deci-Hertz space-based detector. Shock oscillations during the NDAF phase impart time variations with frequency O$(10-100)$ Hz to the neutrino and GW signals, encoding information about the shock dynamics and inner disk. These time variations can be detectable in neutrinos by IceCube within O$(1-10)$ kpc depending on progenitor model, flavor transformation scenario, and detailed properties of the angular momentum transport mechanism.