GW170817, General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations, and the Neutron Star Maximum Mass

Milton Ruiz; Stuart L. Shapiro; Antonios Tsokaros

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.97.021501

paper

GW170817, General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations, and the Neutron Star Maximum Mass

arXiv:1711.00473 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.97.021501

Abstract

Recent numerical simulations in general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) provide useful constraints for the interpretation of the GW170817 discovery. Combining the observed data with these simulations leads to a bound on the maximum mass of a cold, spherical neutron star (the TOV limit): $M_{max}^{sph} ≲ 2.74/ β$ , where $β$ is the ratio of the maximum mass of a uniformly rotating neutron star (the supramassive limit) over the maximum mass of a nonrotating star. Causality arguments allow $β$ to be as high as $1.27$ , while most realistic candidate equations of state predict $β$ to be closer to $1.2$ , yielding $M_{max}^{sph}$ in the range $2.16 - 2.28 M_{⊙}$ . A minimal set of assumptions based on these simulations distinguishes this analysis from previous ones, but leads to a similar estimate. There are caveats, however, and they are enumerated and discussed. The caveats can be removed by further simulations and analysis to firm up the basic argument.

6 pages, 1 figure. Matches published version

GW170817, General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations, and the Neutron Star Maximum Mass

Abstract

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