Constraining the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars From Multi-Messenger Observations of GW170817

Abstract

We combine electromagnetic (EM) and gravitational wave (GW) information on the binary neutron star (NS) merger GW170817 in order to constrain the radii $R_{\mathrm{ns}}$ and maximum mass $M_{\max }$ of NSs. GW170817 was followed by a range of EM counterparts, including a weak gamma-ray burst (GRB), kilonova (KN) emission from the radioactive decay of the merger ejecta, and X-ray/radio emission consistent with being the synchrotron afterglow of a more powerful off-axis jet. The type of compact remnant produced in the immediate merger aftermath, and its predicted EM signal, depend sensitively on the high-density NS equation of state (EOS). For a soft EOS which supports a low $M_{\max }$, the merger undergoes a prompt collapse accompanied by a small quantity of shock-heated or disk wind ejecta, inconsistent with the large quantity $\gtrsim 10^{-2}{M}_{\odot }$ of lanthanide-free ejecta inferred from the KN. On the other hand, if $M_{\max }$ is sufficiently large, then the merger product is a rapidly-rotating supramassive NS (SMNS), which must spin-down before collapsing into a black hole. A fraction of the enormous rotational energy necessarily released by the SMNS during this process is transferred to the ejecta, either into the GRB jet (energy $E_{\mathrm{GRB}}$) or the KN ejecta (energy $E_{\mathrm{ej}}$), also inconsistent with observations. By combining the total binary mass of GW170817 inferred from the GW signal with conservative upper limits on $E_{\mathrm{GRB}}$ and $E_{\mathrm{ej}}$ from EM observations, we constrain the likelihood probability of a wide-range of previously-allowed EOS. These two constraints delineate an allowed region of the $M_{\max }-R_{\mathrm{ns}}$ parameter space, which once marginalized over NS radius places an upper limit of $M_{\max }\lesssim 2.17M_{\odot }$ (90\%), which is tighter or arguably less model-dependent than other current constraints.

ApJL, accepted version

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