The Gravitational waves merger time distribution of binary neutron star systems

Abstract

Binary neutron stars (BNS) mergers are prime sites for $r$-process nucleosynthesis. Their rate determines the chemical evolution of heavy elements in the Milky Way. The merger rate of BNS is a convolution of their birth rate and the gravitational radiation spiral-in delay time. Using the observed population of Galactic BNS we show here that the lifetimes of pulsars in observed BNSs are sufficiently short that the ages of BNSs have little to no effect on the observed merger time distribution. We find that at late times ($t\gtrsim 1$ Gyr) the gravitational wave delay time distribution (DTD) follows the expected $t^{-1}$. However, a significant excess of rapidly merging systems (between $40-60\%$ of the entire population) is apparent at shorter times. Although the exact shape of the DTD cannot be determined with the existing data, in all models that adequately describe the data we find at least $40\%$ of BNSs with merger times less than 1Gyr. This population of rapid mergers implies a declining deposition rate of $r$-process materials that is consistent with several independent observations of heavy element abundances in the Milky Way. At the same time this population that requires initial binary separations of roughly one solar radius clearly indicates that these binaries had common envelope progenitors. Our results suggest that a significant fraction of future LIGO/Virgo BNS mergers would reside in star forming galaxies.

8 pages, 5 figures. Published in MNRAS

References in corpus (20)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• Tests of general relativity from timing the double pulsar
• Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger
• Formation of Double Neutron Star Systems
• Timing Measurements of the Relativistic Binary Pulsar PSR B1913+16
• The Quenching of the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies in the Reionization Era
• The rate, luminosity function and time delay of non-Collapsar short GRBs
• Reconstructing the star formation history of the Milky Way disc(s) from chemical abundances
• Formation Rates and Evolution Histories of Magnetars
• PSR J1756$-$2251: a pulsar with a low-mass neutron star companion
• The Binary Companion of Young, Relativistic Pulsar J1906+0746
• The Star Formation Histories of Local Group Dwarf Galaxies III. Characterizing Quenching in Low-Mass Galaxies
• Multi-telescope timing of PSR J1518+4904
• Natal Kicks and Time Delays in Merging Neutron Star Binaries - Implications for r-process nucleosynthesis in Ultra Faint Dwarfs and in the Milky Way
• r-process Production Sites as inferred from Eu Abundances in Dwarf Galaxies
• A new delay time distribution for merging neutron stars tested against Galactic and cosmic data
• Enrichment history of r-process elements shaped by a merger of neutron star pairs
• The binary pulsar PSR J1811-1736: evidence of a low amplitude supernova kick
• PSR J1930-1852: a pulsar in the widest known orbit around another neutron star
• Contribution of Neutron Star Mergers to the R-process Chemical Evolution in the Hierarchical Galaxy Formation

Cited by in corpus (52)

• Origin of the Heaviest Elements: the Rapid Neutron-Capture Process
• The electromagnetic counterparts of compact binary mergers
• Afterglow Lightcurves from Misaligned Structured Jets
• Short GRB Host Galaxies. II. A Legacy Sample of Redshifts, Stellar Population Properties, and Implications for their Neutron Star Merger Origins
• $R$-process enhancements of Gaia-Enceladus in GALAH DR3
• On the formation of GW190814
• A deep survey of short GRB host galaxies over $z\sim 0-2$: implications for offsets, redshifts, and environments
• Evidence from Disrupted Halo Dwarfs that $r$-process Enrichment via Neutron Star Mergers is Delayed by $\gtrsim 500$ Myrs
• Fast radio bursts from activities of neutron stars newborn in BNS mergers: offset, birth rate and observational properties
• Evidence for an abundant old population of Galactic ultra long period magnetars and implications for fast radio bursts
• Cosmological Evolution of the Formation Rate of Short Gamma-ray Bursts With and Without Extended Emission
• Constraints on the circumburst environments of short gamma-ray bursts
• Observational Inference on the Delay Time Distribution of Short Gamma-ray Bursts
• Shock within a shock: revisiting the radio flares of NS merger ejecta and GRB-supernovae
• Neutron star mergers as the astrophysical site of the r-process in the Milky Way and its satellite galaxies
• Neutron star binary orbits in their host potential: effect on early r-process enrichment
• Finding the remnants of the Milky Way's last neutron star mergers
• Survival times of supramassive neutron stars resulting from binary neutron star mergers
• Discovery of the optical afterglow and host galaxy of short GRB181123B at $z=1.754$: Implications for Delay Time Distributions
• Timing the r-Process Enrichment of the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II
• No velocity-kicks are required to explain large-distance offsets of Ca-rich supernovae and short-GRBs
• Turbulent mixing of r-process elements in the Milky Way
• Common envelope jets supernova r-process yields can reproduce $[Eu/Fe]$ abundance evolution in the Galaxy
• Evidence of extended emission in GRB 181123B and other high-redshift short GRBs
• Extreme r-process enhanced stars at high metallicity in Fornax
• Evidence for r-process delay in very metal-poor stars
• r-process Abundance Patterns in the Globular Cluster M92
• The Stars in M15 Were Born with the r-process
• Is GW170817 a Multimessenger Neutron Star-Primordial Black Hole Merger?
• Being Careful with the Field Formation Interpretation of GW190412
• Constraining Delay Time Distribution of Binary Neutron Star Mergers from Host Galaxy Properties
• Nucleosynthesis in outflows of compact objects and detection prospects of associated kilonovae
• Binary neutron star merger in common envelope jet supernovae
• Probing binary neutron star mergers in dense environments using afterglow counterparts
• Observational constraints on the origin of the elements. VI. Origin and evolution of neutron-capture elements as probed by the Gaia-ESO survey
• Systematic errors due to quasi-universal relations in binary neutron stars and their correction for unbiased model selection
• Infrared dust echoes from neutron star mergers
• Inference of multi-channel r-process element enrichment in the Milky Way using binary neutron star merger observations
• The Implications of Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II on the Common Envelope Jets Supernova r-process Scenario
• Optical darkness in short-duration $\gamma$-ray bursts
• Where has all the $r$-process gone? Timescales for GRB-Kilonovae to Enrich their Host Galaxies
• GRB 241105A: A test case for GRB classification and rapid r-process nucleosynthesis channels
• Chemical Evolution in Nuclear Stellar Discs
• Modelling the chemical evolution of the Milky Way
• Evolutionary tracks of binary neutron star progenitors across cosmic times
• The impact of rare events on the chemical enrichment in dwarf galaxies
• Chemical Evolution and Kilonova Implications of Post-Merger Accretion Disk Winds
• Host galaxies and electromagnetic counterparts to binary neutron star mergers across the cosmic time: Detectability of GW170817-like events
• Short gamma-ray burst progenitors have short delay times
• Observational constraints on the origin of the elements. X. Combining NLTE and machine learning for chemical diagnostics of 4 million stars in the 4MIDABLE-HR survey
• GRB 160410A: the first Chemical Study of the Interstellar Medium of a Short GRB
• Two Sites of r-Process Production Assessed on the Basis of the Age-tagged Abundances of Solar Twins