A mildly relativistic wide-angle outflow in the neutron-star merger event GW170817
Abstract
GW170817 was the first gravitational-wave detection of a binary neutron-star merger. It was accompanied by radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum and localized to the galaxy NGC 4993 at a distance of 40 megaparsecs. It has been proposed that the observed γ-ray, X-ray and radio emission is due to an ultra-relativistic jet being launched during the merger (and successfully breaking out of the surrounding material), directed away from our line of sight (off-axis). The presence of such a jet is predicted from models that posit neutron-star mergers as the drivers of short hard-γ-ray bursts. Here we report that the radio light curve of GW170817 has no direct signature of the afterglow of an off-axis jet. Although we cannot completely rule out the existence of a jet directed away from the line of sight, the observed γ-ray emission could not have originated from such a jet. Instead, the radio data require the existence of a mildly relativistic wide-angle outflow moving towards us. This outflow could be the high-velocity tail of the neutron-rich material that was ejected dynamically during the merger, or a cocoon of material that breaks out when a jet launched during the merger transfers its energy to the dynamical ejecta. Because the cocoon model explains the radio light curve of GW170817, as well as the γ-ray and X-ray emission (and possibly also the ultraviolet and optical emission), it is the model that is most consistent with the observational data. Cocoons may be a ubiquitous phenomenon produced in neutron-star mergers, giving rise to a hitherto unidentified population of radio, ultraviolet, X-ray and γ-ray transients in the local Universe.
- Publication:
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Nature
- Pub Date:
- February 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1038/nature25452
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1711.11573
- Bibcode:
- 2018Natur.554..207M
- Keywords:
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- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 41 pages, 4 figures (main text), 4 figures (supplementary text), 1 table. This revised version incorporates comments from the referees