A Study of Compact Object Mergers as Short Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors

By Krzysztof Belczyński, R. Perna, T. Bulik, Vicky Kalogera, Natalia Ivanova, D. Lamb. 2006

262 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present a theoretical study of double compact objects as potential short/hard gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitors. An updated population synthesis code, StarTrack, is used to calculate properties of double neutron stars and black hole-neutron star binaries. We obtain their formation rates, estimate merger times, and finally predict their most likely merger locations and afterglow properties for different types of host galaxies. Our results serve for a direct comparison with the recent HETE-2 and Swift observations of several short bursts, for which afterglows and host galaxies were detected. We also discuss the possible constraints these observations put on the evolutionary models of double compact object formation. We emphasize that our double compact object models can successfully reproduce at the same time short GRBs within both young, star-forming galaxies (e.g., GRB 050709 and GRB 051221A), as well as within old, elliptical hosts (e.g., GRB 050724 and probably GRB 050509B).

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/64c5d86f1cc2e5cc42a959ddc0d133735b061e39

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

Citations in the corpus

A New Population of High-Redshift Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (2006, background): “We note that such a redshift distribution has been predicted in the context of NS-NS and NS-BH progenitors by Belczynski et al. (2006), with peak redshifts of z ∼ 1 and ∼ 1.5, respectively.”
Short-duration gamma-ray bursts with extended emission from protomagnetar spin-down (2007, background): “Although the offset distribution of short GRBs as a whole appears marginally consistent with current COM population synthesis models (Belczynski et al. 2006), well-localized SGRBEEs thus far appear exclusively inside or near the starlight of their host galaxies; indeed, their average offset from…”
First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: a tale of two elements - chemical evolution of magnesium and europium (2017, background): “In line with observations and other theoretical treatments, we take the cut-off time, tcut, to be 100 Myrs (Fryer et al. 1999; Belczynski et al. 2006; Shen et al. 2015).”
The astrophysical gravitational wave stochastic background (2011, background): “Population synthesis (Piran 1992; Tutukov & Yungelson 1994; Lipunov et al. 1995; Ando 2004; de Freitas Pacheco et al. 2006; Belczynski et al. 2006; O’Shaughnessy et al. 2008) suggest that the delay time is well described by a probability distribution of the form: Pd(td) ∝ 1 td with td > τ0.”
The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. VII. Properties of the Host Galaxy and Constraints on the Merger Timescale (2017, background): “For example, the distribution of delay times (i.e., the sum of the evolutionary time to form a BNS system and its time to merge) is a key output of population synthesis simulations (e.g., Voss & Tauris 2003; Belczynski et al. 2006; Dominik et al. 2012).”
Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era (2007, background): “On the other hand, Belczynski et al. (2006) argue a bimodal distribution of the merger times corresponding to two distinct evolutionary tracks of compact star binaries.”
Ultrahigh precision cosmology from gravitational waves (2009, unknown): “[52] K. Belczynski et al. 2006, Astrophys.”
Runaway stars as progenitors of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts (2011, background): “Over a similar range of merger times Belczynski et al. (2006) have two sharply defined peaks in the merger rate at around 105 and 109 years.”
Formation and evolution of compact binaries in globular clusters – II. Binaries with neutron stars (2007, methodology): “Indeed, the prescription above was recently used in a study of double neutron star formation as shortγ-ray burst progenitors (Belczynski et al. 2006).”
On the astrophysical robustness of the neutron star merger r-process (2012, background): “Some binary population synthesis studies (Dewi & Pols 2003; Belczynski et al. 2006) find indeed short-lived channels that coalesce essentially at birth, so an early enrichment from compact mergers is at least plausible.”
DOUBLE COMPACT OBJECTS. I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COMMON ENVELOPE ON MERGER RATES (2012, methodology): “…2003; Dewi & Pols, 2003; Nutzman et al., 2004; Pfahl et al., 2005), and exploration of the relevant physical processes and rate estimates were obtained with the StarTrack population synthesis code (Belczynski et al., 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010a,b, 2011a; O’Shaughnessy et al., 2005a,b,c).”
Electromagnetic counterparts of compact object mergers powered by the radioactive decay of r‐process nuclei (2010, background): “Population synthesis estimates (e.g., Belczynski et al. 2006) are consistent with this range but with larger uncertainties.”
THE LOCATIONS OF SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS AS EVIDENCE FOR COMPACT OBJECT BINARY PROGENITORS (2013, methodology): “The short GRB distribution is broadly consistent with the NS-NS binary merger predictions, and is in very good agreement with two of the three models (Bloom et al. 1999; Belczynski et al. 2006).”
On the Rarity of Double Black Hole Binaries: Consequences for Gravitational Wave Detection (2006, background): “Mergers of compact objects, either NS-NS or BH-NS, are currently the leading progenitor model for short-hard GRBs (for a recent review see Nakar 2007).”