Neutron star merger ejecta estimation with kilonova light curve surrogates

ORAL

Abstract

The observation of GW170817 sparked the era of multi-messenger astrophysics when a merger of two neutron stars was observed by both gravitational wave detection and its electromagnetic counterpart, the kilonova emission. Such neutron star mergers enrich the environment with neutron rich material. The mass and velocity of the ejecta material can be inferred independently from both the kilonova emission and the gravitational wave observation, however, those inferred from the kilonova AT2017gfo has been in tension with the properties inferred based on the gravitational wave signal GW170817. In this talk, we will present the newly developed surrogate models for light curves resulting from 2-D kilonova simulations (SuperNu) made for a large set of ejecta outflow morphologies and compositions. We use these models to then calculate the inferred ejecta properties, which helps identify the effect of morphologies and composition in this tension. We find that due to these additional ejecta models the tension is alleviated to some extent but there still remains significant disagreement. We will also show the capabilities of our surrogate models that can produce LCs for a range of ejecta component velocities, viewing angles, and at any broadband filter within a range of wavelengths.

*A.K. and M.R. acknowledge support from NSF Grant No. AST-1909534. R.O.S. acknowledges support from NSF Grant No. AST-1909534, NSF Grant No. PHY-2012057, and the Simons Foundation. R.T.W., O.K., E.A.C., C.L.F., and C.J.F. were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by Triad National Security, LLC, for the National Nuclear Security Administration of U.S. Department of Energy (Contract No. 89233218CNA000001). Research presented in this paper was supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program of Los Alamos National Laboratory under Project No. 20190021DR. This research used resources provided by the Los Alamos National Laboratory Institutional Computing Program, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract No. 89233218CNA000001. A.B.Y. acknowledges support from NSF Grant No. PHY-2012057.

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Publication: arXiv:2211.04363 [astro-ph.HE]

Presenters

  • Atul Kedia

    • Rochester Institute of Technology

Authors

  • Atul Kedia

    • Rochester Institute of Technology

  • Marko Ristic

    • Rochester Institute of Technology

  • Richard O'Shaughnessy

    • Rochester Institute of Technology

  • Ryan Wollaeger

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Lab

  • Anjali Balasaheb Yelikar

    • Rochester Institute of Technology

  • Oleg Korobkin

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Eve Chase

    • Los Alamos National Lab

  • Chris L Fryer

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Christopher J Fontes

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory