paper

Can a black hole-neutron star merger explain GW170817, AT2017gfo, GRB170817A?

arXiv:1901.06052 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.100.043011

Abstract

The discovery of the compact binary coalescence in both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation marks a breakthrough in the field of multi-messenger astronomy and has improved our knowledge in a number of research areas. However, an open question is the exact origin of the observables and if one can confirm reliably that GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterparts resulted from a binary neutron star merger. To answer the question if the observation of GW170817, GRB170817A, and AT2017gfo could be explained by the merger of a neutron star with a black hole, we perform a joint multi-messenger analysis of the gravitational waves, the short gamma-ray burst, and the kilonova. Assuming a black-hole neutron star system, we derive multi-messenger constraints for the tidal deformability of the NS of and for the mass ratio of at 90\% confidence, with peaks in the likelihood near and . Overall, we find that a black hole-neutron star merger could explain the observed signatures, however, our analysis shows that a binary neutron star origin of GW170817 seems more plausible.

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