No Detectable Kilonova Counterpart is Expected for O3 Neutron Star-Black Hole Candidates

Abstract

We analyse the tidal disruption probability of potential neutron star--black hole (NSBH) merger gravitational wave (GW) events, including GW190426_152155, GW190814, GW200105_162426 and GW200115_042309, detected during the third observing run of the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration, and the detectability of kilonova emission in connection with these events. The posterior distributions of GW190814 and GW200105_162426 show that they must be plunging events and hence no kilonova signal is expected from these events. With the stiffest NS equation of state allowed by the constraint of GW170817 taken into account, the probability that GW190426_152155 and GW200115_042309 can make tidal disruption is $\sim 24\%$ and $\sim 3\%$, respectively. However, the predicted kilonova brightness is too faint to be detected for present follow-up search campaigns, which explains the lack of electromagnetic (EM) counterpart detection after triggers of these GW events. Based on the best constrained population synthesis simulation results, we find that disrupted events account for only $\lesssim 20\%$ of cosmological NSBH mergers since most of the primary BHs could have low spins. The associated kilonovae for those disrupted events are still difficult to be discovered by LSST after GW triggers in the future, because of their low brightness and larger distances. For future GW-triggered multi-messenger observations, potential short-duration gamma-ray bursts and afterglows are more probable EM counterparts of NSBH GW events.

13 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (46)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger
• Gravitational Waves and Gamma-rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
• GW190814: Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 23 M${}_{\odot }$ Black Hole with a 2.6 M${}_{\odot }$ Compact Object
• A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
• An Ordinary Short Gamma-Ray Burst with Extraordinary Implications: Fermi-GBM Detection of GRB 170817A
• Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational wave event
• Swope Supernova Survey 2017a (SSS17a), the Optical Counterpart to a Gravitational Wave Source
• The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/VIRGO GW170817. II. UV, Optical, and Near-IR Light Curves and Comparison to Kilonova Models
• Spectroscopic identification of r-process nucleosynthesis in a double neutron star merger
• INTEGRAL Detection of the First Prompt Gamma-Ray Signal Coincident with the Gravitational Wave Event GW170817
• A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source
• The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational wave event GW 170817
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives
• Light Curves of the Neutron Star Merger GW170817/SSS17a: Implications for R-Process Nucleosynthesis
• Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger
• Observation of gravitational waves from two neutron star-black hole coalescences
• Optical emission from a kilonova following a gravitational-wave-detected neutron-star merger
• Comprehensive nucleosynthesis analysis for ejecta of compact binary mergers
• The Combined Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-Infrared Light Curves of the Kilonova Associated with the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817: Unified Data Set, Analytic Models, and Physical Implications
• Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: detection of a blue kilonova
• The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/VIRGO GW170817. V. Rising X-ray Emission from an Off-Axis Jet
• Kilonova from post-merger ejecta as an optical and near-infrared counterpart of GW170817
• Electromagnetic Evidence that SSS17a is the Result of a Binary Neutron Star Merger
• AT2017gfo: an anisotropic and three-component kilonova counterpart of GW170817
• Black Hole-Neutron Star Mergers: Disk Mass Predictions
• Fallback accretion in the aftermath of a compact binary merger
• Black hole-neutron star mergers at realistic mass ratios: Equation of state and spin orientation effects
• Optical follow-up of the neutron star-black hole mergers S200105ae and S200115j
• Follow-up of the Neutron Star Bearing Gravitational Wave Candidate Events S190425z and S190426c with MMT and SOAR
• Implications of the search for optical counterparts during the first six months of the Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's third observing run: possible limits on the ejecta mass and binary properties
• Populating the Galaxy with pulsars I: stellar & binary evolution
• Electromagnetic Signatures of Relativistic Explosions in AGN Disks
• Light-curve models of black hole - neutron star mergers: steps towards a multi-messenger parameter estimation
• Neutron Star Mergers in AGN Accretion Disks: Cocoon and Ejecta Shock Breakouts
• Implications of the search for optical counterparts during the second part of the Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's third observing run: lessons learned for future follow-up observations
• Towards rapid transient identification and characterization of kilonovae
• Swift-XRT follow-up of gravitational wave triggers during the third aLIGO/Virgo observing run
• The Radius of PSR J0740+6620 from NICER and XMM-Newton Data
• DDOTI Observations of Gravitational-Wave Sources Discovered in O3
• Bright "Merger-nova" Emission Powered by Magnetic wind from a New-Born Black Hole
• Inspiral of a Spinning Black Hole--Magnetized Neutron Star Binary: Increasing Charge and Electromagnetic Emission
• High Energy Neutrinos from Choked Gamma-Ray Bursts in AGN Accretion Disks
• Predicting electromagnetic counterparts using low-latency, gravitational-wave data products
• Constraining neutron star radii in black hole-neutron star mergers from their electromagnetic counterparts
• Estimates of the early EM emission from compact binary mergers

Cited by in corpus (14)

• 4-OGC: Catalog of gravitational waves from compact-binary mergers
• Black hole-neutron star mergers are unlikely multi-messenger sources
• GW200115: a non-spinning black hole -- neutron star merger
• Leveraging gravitational-wave memory to distinguish neutron star--black hole binaries from black hole binaries
• Mock data study for next-generation ground-based detectors: The performance loss of matched filtering due to correlated confusion noise
• An Infrared Search for Kilonovae with the WINTER Telescope. I. Binary Neutron Star Mergers
• A comprehensive search for the radio counterpart of GW190814 with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder
• Anisotropic multimessenger signals from black hole neutrino-dominated accretion flows with outflows in binary compact object mergers
• Stochastic gravitational wave background due to gravitational wave memory
• Kilonova and Optical Afterglow from Binary Neutron Star Mergers. II. Optimal Search Strategy for Serendipitous Observations and Target-of-opportunity Observations of Gravitational-wave Triggers
• High-energy Neutrino Productions from AGN Disk Transients Impacted by Circum-disk Medium
• Merger of a Neutron Star with a Black Hole: one-family vs. two-families scenario
• Effects of vertical advection on multimessenger signatures of black hole neutrino-dominated accretion flows in compact binary coalescences
• Gravitational Waves and Electromagnetic Transients