Binary-Induced Gravitational Collapse: A Trivial Example

Abstract

We present a simple model illustrating how a highly relativistic, compact object which is stable in isolation can be driven dynamically unstable by the tidal field of a binary companion. Our compact object consists of a test-particle in a relativistic orbit about a black hole; the binary companion is a distant point mass. Our example is presented in light of mounting theoretical opposition to the possibility that sufficiently massive, binary neutron stars inspiraling from large distance can collapse to form black holes prior to merger. Our strong-field model suggests that first order post-Newtonian treatments of binaries, and stability analyses of binary equilibria based on orbit-averaged, mean gravitational fields, may not be adequate to rule out this possibility.

7 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. D, Jan 15 1998

References in corpus (4)

• Binary Neutron Stars in General Relativity: Quasi-Equilibrium Models
• Post-Newtonian Models of Binary Neutron Stars
• The central density of neutron stars in close binaries
• The central density of a neutron star is unaffected by a binary companion at linear order in $\mu /R$

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Numerical Relativity and Compact Binaries
• Relativistic Hydrodynamics in Close Binary Systems: Analysis of Neutron-Star Collapse
• Binary Neutron-Star Systems: From the Newtonian Regime to the Last Stable Orbit
• Are neutron stars crushed? Gravitomagnetic tidal fields as a mechanism for binary-induced collapse
• Binary-induced collapse of a compact, collisionless cluster
• On the tidally induced gravitational collapse of a particle cluster