Mergers of binary stars: The ultimate heavy-ion experience

Abstract

The mergers of black hole-neutron star binaries are calcuated using a pseudo-general relativistic potential that incorporates $\mathcal{O}(v^2/c^2{)}^3$ post-Newtonian corrections. Both normal matter neutron stars and self-bound strange quark matter stars are considered as black hole partners. As long as the neutron stars are not too massive relative to the black hole mass, orbital decay terminates in stable mass transfer rather than an actual merger. For a normal neutron star, mass transfer results in a widening of the orbit but the stable transfer ends before the minimum neutron star mass is reached. For a strange star, mass transfer does not result in an appreciable enlargement of the orbital separation, and the stable transfer continues until the strange star essentially disappears. These differences might be observable through their respective gravitational wave signatures.

arXiv commentContribution to QM04 proceedings. Submitted to Journal of Physics G

References in corpus (5)

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Cited by in corpus (7)

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• A compact binary merger model for the short, hard GRB 050509b
• Impact of the nuclear equation of state on the last orbits of binary neutron stars
• Prompt Mergers of Neutron Stars with Black Holes
• Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions and the QCD Matter Phase Diagram
• The Role of the Equation of State in Binary Mergers