The Gravitational Wave Memory from Binary Neutron Star Mergers
arXiv:2510.09742 · doi:10.1103/k3hl-4n82
Abstract
The gravitational wave signal produced by the merger of two compact objects includes both an oscillatory transient and a non-oscillatory part, the so-called memory effect. This produces a permanent displacement of test masses and has not yet been measured. We use general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, including neutrinos, with several representative viable equations of state, to quantify--for the first time--the effects of the neutron star magnetic field, neutrino emission, and the ejected mass on the linear and nonlinear displacement memory in binary neutron star mergers. We find that the additional contributions due to the emission of electromagnetic radiation, neutrinos and baryonic ejecta can be ~15% of the total memory for moderate magnetic fields and up to ~50% for extreme magnetic fields. The memory is most affected by changes in the equation of state, the binary mass, and the magnetic field. In particular, for moderate premerger field strengths, the dominant impact of the electromagnetic field is the change in the gravitational wave luminosity, and the associated gravitational wave null memory, due to the unstable growth of the magnetic field and the resulting redistribution of angular momentum it induces in the remnant. While the direct electromagnetic contribution to the null memory is additive, the change in the gravitational wave null memory can--in some cases--result in the total memory being smaller than that from the corresponding nonmagnetized binary. Furthermore, in contrast to binary black hole mergers, the growth of the memory in binary neutron star mergers is extended due to the long emission timescale of electromagnetic fields, neutrinos, and ejecta. These results necessitate the consideration of the magnetic field, as well as the equation of state, for accurate parameter estimation in future analyses of gravitational wave memory data.
8 pages, 5 figures. Movies and additional visualizations available at https://tinyurl.com/shapiromovies
References in corpus (47)
- Sensitivity Studies for Third-Generation Gravitational Wave Observatories
- Core-collapse supernova equations of state based on neutron star observations
- Statistical Model for a Complete Supernova Equation of State
- The Einstein Toolkit: A Community Computational Infrastructure for Relativistic Astrophysics
- Neutrino-driven winds from neutron star merger remnants
- Sensitivity and Performance of the Advanced LIGO Detectors in the Third Observing Run
- Magnetar Spindown, Hyper-Energetic Supernovae, and Gamma Ray Bursts
- Neutrino signatures and the neutrino-driven wind in Binary Neutron Star Mergers
- Three-dimensional GRMHD simulations of the remnant accretion disks from neutron star mergers: outflows and r-process nucleosynthesis
- New Gravitational Memories
- Gravitational waves and neutrino emission from the merger of binary neutron stars
- Relativistic Equation of State for Core-Collapse Supernova Simulations
- The gravitational-wave memory effect
- Detecting gravitational-wave memory with LIGO: implications of GW150914
- Notes on the integration of numerical relativity waveforms
- Post-Newtonian corrections to the gravitational-wave memory for quasicircular, inspiralling compact binaries
- An electromagnetic analog of gravitational wave memory
- IllinoisGRMHD: An Open-Source, User-Friendly GRMHD Code for Dynamical Spacetimes
- Extraction of Gravitational Waves in Numerical Relativity
- Nonlinear gravitational-wave memory from binary black hole mergers
- A perturbative and gauge invariant treatment of gravitational wave memory
- Computation of Displacement and Spin Gravitational Memory in Numerical Relativity
- Gravitational memory in binary black hole mergers
- Center-of-mass angular momentum and memory effect in asymptotically flat spacetimes
- Forecasts for detecting the gravitational-wave memory effect with Advanced LIGO and Virgo
- Adding Gravitational Memory to Waveform Catalogs using BMS Balance Laws
- Magnetohydrodynamics of Neutrino-Cooled Accretion Tori around a Rotating Black Hole in General Relativity
- Improved Cauchy-characteristic evolution system for high-precision numerical relativity waveforms
- Outlook for detecting the gravitational wave displacement and spin memory effects with current and future gravitational wave detectors
- Self-consistent picture of the mass ejection from a one second-long binary neutron star merger leaving a short-lived remnant in general-relativistic neutrino-radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulation
- Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Binary Neutron Star Mergers in General Relativity: Effects of Magnetic Field Orientation on Jet Launching
- Gravitational Wave Memory of Gamma-Ray Burst Jets
- Global aspects of radiation memory
- Neutron-star spindown and magnetic inclination-angle evolution
- Numerical relativity surrogate model with memory effects and post-Newtonian hybridization
- Prospects of detecting the nonlinear gravitational wave memory
- Testing Gravitational Memory Generation with Compact Binary Mergers
- The Electromagnetic Christodoulou Memory Effect and its Application to Neutron Star Binary Mergers
- Leveraging gravitational-wave memory to distinguish neutron star--black hole binaries from black hole binaries
- Gravitational Wave Memory from Gamma Ray Bursts' Jets
- Addition of tabulated equation of state and neutrino leakage support to IllinoisGRMHD
- Properties of neutrino transfer in a deformed remnant of neutron star merger
- Jetlike structures in low-mass binary neutron star merger remnants
- Magnetic Braking and Damping of Differential Rotation in Massive Stars
- Gravitational wave memory of compact binary coalescence in the presence of matter effects
- Postmerger multimessenger analysis of binary neutron stars: Effect of the magnetic field strength and topology
- Gravitational Wave Memory from Accelerating Relativistic Jets in Multiple Thick Shell Scenarios