paper

Eccentric binary neutron star mergers

arXiv:1109.5128 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.86.121501

Abstract

Neutron star binaries offer a rich phenomenology in terms of gravitational waves and merger remnants. However, most general relativistic studies have been performed for nearly circular binaries, with the exception of head-on collisions. We present the first numerical relativity investigation of mergers of eccentric equal-mass neutron-star binaries that probes the regime between head-on and circular. In addition to gravitational waves generated by the orbital motion, we find that the signal also contains a strong component due to stellar oscillations (f-modes) induced by tidal forces, extending a classical result for Newtonian binaries. The merger can lead to rather massive disks on the order of 10% of the total initial mass.

6 pages, 7 figures

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