Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “merger”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Is GW170817 a Multimessenger Neutron Star-Primordial Black Hole Merger?

We investigate the possibility of the gravitational-wave event GW170817 being a light, solar-mass black hole (BH) - neutron star (NS) merger. We explore two exotic scenarios involving primordial black holes (PBH) that could produce such an event, taking into account available observational information on NGC 4993. First, we entertain the possibility of dynamical NS-PBH binary formation where a solar-mass PBH and a NS form a binary through gravitational interaction. We find that while dynamical NS-PBH formation could account for the GW170817 event, the rate is highly dependent on unknown density contrast factors and could potentially be affected by galaxy mergers. We also find that PBH-PBH binaries would likely have a larger merger rate, assuming the density contrast boost factor of an order similar to the NS-PBH case. These exotic merger formations could provide new channels to account for the volumetric rate of compact-object mergers reported by LIGO/Virgo. Secondly, we consider the case where one of the NS's in a binary NS system is imploded by a microscopic PBH. We find that the predicted rate for NS implosion into a BH is very small, at least for the specific environment of NGC 4993. We point out that similar existing (e.g. GW190425 and GW190814) and future observations will shed additional light on these scenarios.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Mergers Matter: Gravothermal Collapse in Dwarf Halos with Self-Interacting Dark Matter

Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) models with large cross sections at relative velocities below $\sim100\,{\rm km \, s}^{-1}$ can be tested with dwarf galaxy observations. We analyze six dark-matter-only zoom-in $\sim10^{10}\,{\rm M}_\odot$ halos with diverse assembly histories, adopting a cross section over mass of $σ/m = 70\,cm^2 \, g^{-1}$. We find that mergers inject orbital kinetic energy into the halo, altering the heat transport and the gravothermal evolution of the core. Three of the six halos -- those with the most quiescent merger histories -- show clear signs of core collapse in these simulations. Halos with sustained mergers do not collapse. Furthermore, merger-induced heat transport drives two non-collapsing halos to central densities well below the predictions of the gravothermal fluid model. These findings suggest a novel mechanism for producing dark-matter-deficient galaxies and expanding the diversity of rotation curves beyond what halo concentration alone predicts. Merger histories are thus essential for understanding central density distributions of dwarf galaxy halos in SIDM.

Silverman, Maya [UC, Irvine; Bohr Inst.] (ORCID:00↗
DOE OSTI2023

Late-time post-merger modeling of a compact binary: effects of relativity, r-process heating, and treatment of transport

Detectable electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves from compact binary mergers can be produced by outflows from the black hole-accretion disk remnant during the first 10 s after the merger. Two-dimensional axisymmetric simulations with effective viscosity remain an efficient and informative way to model this late-time post-merger evolution. In addition to the inherent approximations of axisymmetry and modeling turbulent angular momentum transport by a viscosity, previous simulations often make other simplifications related to the treatment of the equation of state and turbulent transport effects. In this paper, we test the effect of these modeling choices. By evolving with the same viscosity the exact post-merger initial configuration previously evolved in Newtonian viscous hydrodynamics, we find that the Newtonian treatment provides a good estimate of the disk ejecta mass but underestimates the outflow velocity. We find that the inclusion of heavy nuclei causes a notable increase in ejecta mass. An approximate inclusion of r-process effects has a comparatively smaller effect, except for its designed effect on the composition. Diffusion of composition and entropy, modeling turbulent transport effects, has the overall effect of reducing ejecta mass and giving it a speed with lower average and more tightly-peaked distribution. Also, we find significant acceleration of outflow even at distances beyond 10 000 km, so that thermal wind velocities only asymptote beyond this radius and at higher values than often reported.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Is Betelgeuse the Outcome of a Past Merger?

We explore the possibility that the star α Orionis (Betelgeuse) is the outcome of a merger that occurred in a low-mass-ratio (q= $\mathcal{M}$ 2 /$\mathcal{M}$ 1 = 0.07–0.25) binary system some time in the past hundreds of thousands of years. To that goal, we present a simple analytical model to approximate the perturbed internal structure of a post-merger object following the coalescence of a secondary in the mass range 1–4 M ⊙ into the envelope of a 15–17 M ⊙ primary. We then compute the long-term evolution of post-merger objects for a grid of initial conditions and make predictions about their surface properties for evolutionary stages that are consistent with the observed location of Betelgeuse in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. We find that if a merger occurred after the end of the primary’s main-sequence phase, while it was expanding toward becoming a red supergiant star and typically with radius ∼200–300 R ⊙ , then its envelope is spun up to values that remain in a range consistent with Betelgeuse observations for thousands of years of evolution. We argue that the best scenario that can explain both the fast rotation of Betelgeuse and its observed large space velocity is one where a binary was dynamically ejected by its parent cluster a few million years ago and then subsequently merged. An alternative scenario in which the progenitor of Betelgeuse was spun up by accretion in a binary and released by the supernova explosion of the companion requires a finely tuned set of conditions but cannot be ruled out.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evidence for Impact of Galaxy Mergers on Stellar Kinematics of Early-type Galaxies

We provide observational evidence that galaxy mergers significantly affect stellar kinematics of early-type galaxies (ETGs) such as specific stellar angular momentum within the half-light radius (${\lambda }_{{R}_{e}}$) and kinematic misalignment (ψ mis ), using MaNGA integral field unit spectroscopic data that are in the Stripe 82 region of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In this study, tidal features around ETGs, which are detected in deep coadded images, are used as direct evidence for mergers that occurred recently. In the case of ETGs that do not have dust lanes, ${\lambda }_{{R}_{e}}$ is lower in ETGs with tidal features than in those without tidal features (median ${\lambda }_{{R}_{e}}$: 0.21 versus 0.39) in all stellar mass and Sérsic index ranges except the most massive bin, so that the fraction of ETGs with tidal features in slow rotators is more than twice as large as that in fast rotators (42% versus 18%). Moreover, ETGs with tidal features have larger ψ mis than those without tidal features (mean ψ mis : 28° versus 15°). By contrast, ETGs with dust lanes are fast rotators, and ETGs with both dust lanes and tidal features have the highest ${\lambda }_{{R}_{e}}$ (median ${\lambda }_{{R}_{e}}$: 0.59) among all ETG categories. In addition, ETGs with dust lanes have small ψ mis regardless of the existence of tidal features (Ψ mis <7$^{°}_{.}$5). Our results can be explained if mergers with different gas fractions generate merger remnants that have different kinematic properties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Large-scale Evolution of Seconds-long Relativistic Jets from Black Hole–Neutron Star Mergers

We present the first numerical simulations that track the evolution of a black hole–neutron star (BH–NS) merger from premerger to r ≳ 10 11 cm. The disk that forms after a merger of mass ratio q = 2 ejects massive disk winds (3–5 × 10 –2 M ⊙ ). We introduce various postmerger magnetic configurations and find that initial poloidal fields lead to jet launching shortly after the merger. The jet maintains a constant power due to the constancy of the large-scale BH magnetic flux until the disk becomes magnetically arrested (MAD), where the jet power falls off as L j ~ t –2 . All jets inevitably exhibit either excessive luminosity due to rapid MAD activation when the accretion rate is high or excessive duration due to delayed MAD activation compared to typical short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs). This provides a natural explanation for long sGRBs such as GRB 211211A but also raises a fundamental challenge to our understanding of jet formation in binary mergers. One possible implication is the necessity of higher binary mass ratios or moderate BH spins to launch typical sGRB jets. For postmerger disks with a toroidal magnetic field, dynamo processes delay jet launching such that the jets break out of the disk winds after several seconds. We show for the first time that sGRB jets with initial magnetization σ0 > 100 retain significant magnetization (σ $\gg$ 1) at r > 10 10 cm, emphasizing the importance of magnetic processes in the prompt emission. The jet–wind interaction leads to a power-law angular energy distribution by inflating an energetic cocoon whose emission is studied in a companion paper.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

r-process abundances in neutron-rich merger ejecta given different theoretical nuclear physics inputs

This data release contains nucleosynthesis predictions for the r-process abundances presented in Côté, Eichler, Yagüe, Vassh et al. (2021) for compact object merger ejecta based on the publicly available simulation trajectories of Rosswog et al. (2013). All ejecta for the merger scenarios considered here are very neutron-rich (Ye ~ 0.016-0.11). Calculations were performed with the PRISM code (Mumpower et al. 2018) which accounts for nuclear reheating (here with a reheating efficiency of 50%). Results are reported for several different theoretical nuclear physics inputs but all calculations make use of the GEF fission yield prescription (see Vassh et al. 2019). All abundances are given at 1 Myr (10^6 years) post-merger. Please see the README file for more details and references. When using these nucleosynthesis yields, please cite this Zenodo data release (Vassh et al. 2021), and refer to Vassh et al. (2019) and Côté, Eichler, Yagüe, Vassh et al. (2021) for further details on the nuclear data applied as well as Rosswog et al. (2013), Piran et al. (2013), and Korobkin et al. (2012) for further details on the merger ejecta trajectories.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Neutrino transport in general relativistic neutron star merger simulations

Abstract Numerical simulations of neutron star–neutron star and neutron star–black hole binaries play an important role in our ability to model gravitational-wave and electromagnetic signals powered by these systems. These simulations have to take into account a wide range of physical processes including general relativity, magnetohydrodynamics, and neutrino radiation transport. The latter is particularly important in order to understand the properties of the matter ejected by many mergers, the optical/infrared signals powered by nuclear reactions in the ejecta, and the contribution of that ejecta to astrophysical nucleosynthesis. However, accurate evolutions of the neutrino transport equations that include all relevant physical processes remain beyond our current reach. In this review, I will discuss the current state of neutrino modeling in general relativistic simulations of neutron star mergers and of their post-merger remnants. I will focus on the three main types of algorithms used in simulations so far: leakage, moments, and Monte-Carlo scheme. I will review the advantages and limitations of each scheme, as well as the various neutrino–matter interactions that should be included in simulations. We will see that the quality of the treatment of neutrinos in merger simulations has greatly increased over the last decade, but also that many potentially important interactions remain difficult to take into account in simulations (pair annihilation, oscillations, inelastic scattering).

Foucart, Francois (ORCID:0000000346174738)↗
DOE OSTI2020

Optical follow-up of the neutron star–black hole mergers S200105ae and S200115j

LIGO and Virgo’s third observing run revealed the first neutron star–black hole (NSBH) merger candidates in gravitational waves. These events are predicted to synthesize r-process elements creating optical/near-infrared ‘kilonova’ emission. The joint gravitational wave and electromagnetic detection of an NSBH merger could be used to constrain the equation of state of dense nuclear matter, and independently measure the local expansion rate of the Universe. Here, we present the optical follow-up and analysis of two of the only three high-significance NSBH merger candidates detected to date, S200105ae and S200115j, with the Zwicky Transient Facility. The Zwicky Transient Facility observed ~48% of S200105ae and ~22% of S200115j’s localization probabilities, with observations sensitive to kilonovae brighter than –17.5 mag fading at 0.5 mag d –1 in the g- and r-bands; extensive searches and systematic follow-up of candidates did not yield a viable counterpart. We present state-of-the-art kilonova models tailored to NSBH systems that place constraints on the ejecta properties of these NSBH mergers. Here, we show that with observed depths of apparent magnitude ~22 mag, attainable in metre-class, wide-field-of-view survey instruments, strong constraints on ejecta mass are possible, with the potential to rule out low mass ratios, high black hole spins and large neutron star radii.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Deep optical imaging of star-forming blue early-type galaxies: Color map structures and faint features indicative of recent mergers

Blue early-type galaxies with galaxy-scale ongoing star formation are interesting targets in order to understand the stellar mass buildup in elliptical and S0 galaxies in the local Universe. We study the star-forming population of blue early-type galaxies to understand the origin of star formation in these otherwise red and dead stellar systems. The legacy survey imaging data taken with the dark energy camera in the g, r, and z bands for 55 star-forming blue early-type galaxies were examined, and g – r color maps were created. We identified low surface brightness features near 37 galaxies, faint-level interaction signatures near 15 galaxies, and structures indicative of recent merger activity in the optical color maps of all 55 galaxies. These features are not visible in the shallow Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data in which these galaxies were originally identified. Low surface brightness features found around galaxies could be remnants of recent merger events. The star-forming population of blue early-type galaxies could be post-merger systems that are expected to be the pathway for the formation of elliptical galaxies. We hypothesize that the star-forming population of blue early-type galaxies is a stage in the evolution of early-type galaxies. The merger features will eventually disappear, fuel for star formation will cease, and the galaxy will move to the passive population of normal early-type galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Exploring the connection between compact object mergers and fast X-ray transients

Context. The connection between compact object mergers and some extragalactic fast X-ray transients (FXRTs) has long been hypothesised but never ultimately established. Aims. In this work, we investigate two FXRTs, the LEIA X-ray Transient LXT 240402A and the Einstein Probe EP 250207b, whose precise positions lie close to nearby (z ≲ 0.1) quiescent galaxies with a negligible probability of chance coincidence, identifying them as particularly promising cases of merger-driven explosions in the local Universe. Methods. We used Chandra to derive accurate localisations for both events and secure otherwise ambiguous associations with their optical counterparts. Deep optical and near-infrared observations with VLT, GTC, and LBT were performed to characterise the surrounding environment and search for kilonova emission, the hallmark of neutron star mergers. Complementary early-time X-ray monitoring with Swift and Einstein Probe was used to constrain the non-thermal afterglow. Results. We find that both FXRTs remain compatible with a compact binary merger progenitor, which produced low-mass ejecta and kilonova emission subdominant to the afterglow. However, alternative explanations such as a distant (z ≳ 1) core-collapse supernova cannot be conclusively ruled out.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The structure of cluster merger shocks: turbulent width and the electron heating time-scale

We present a new 2MsChandra observation of the cluster merger Abell 2146, which hosts two huge M ~ 2 shock fronts each ~500 kpc across. For the first time, we resolve and measure the width of cluster merger shocks. The best-fitting width for the bow shock is 17 ± 1kpc and for the upstream shock is 10.7 ± 0.3 kpc. A narrow collisionless shock will appear broader in projection if its smooth shape is warped by local gas motions. We show that both shock widths are consistent with collisionless shocks blurred by local gas motions of 290 ± 30 km s –1 . The upstream shock forms later on in the merger than the bow shock and is therefore expected to be significantly narrower. From the electron temperature profile behind the bow shock, we measure the time-scale for the electrons and ions to come back into thermal equilibrium. We rule out rapid thermal equilibration of the electrons with the shock-heated ions at the 6σ level. The observed temperature profile instead favours collisional equilibration. For these cluster merger shocks, which have low sonic Mach numbers and propagate through a high β plasma, we find no evidence for electron heating over that produced by adiabatic compression. Our findings are expected to be valid for collisionless shocks with similar parameters in other environments and support the existing picture from the solar wind and supernova remnants. Furthermore, the upstream shock is consistent with this result but has a more complex structure, including a ~2ke V increase in temperature ~50 kpc ahead of the shock.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Constructing high-fidelity halo merger trees in abacussummit

ABSTRACT Tracking the formation and evolution of dark matter haloes is a critical aspect of any analysis of cosmological N-body simulations. In particular, the mass assembly of a halo and its progenitors, encapsulated in the form of its merger tree, serves as a fundamental input for constructing semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and, more generally, for building mock catalogues that emulate galaxy surveys. We present an algorithm for constructing halo merger trees from abacussummit, the largest suite of cosmological N-body simulations performed to date consisting of nearly 60 trillion particles, and which has been designed to meet the Cosmological Simulation Requirements of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. Our method tracks the cores of haloes to determine associations between objects across multiple time slices, yielding lists of halo progenitors and descendants for the several tens of billions of haloes identified across the entire suite. We present an application of these merger trees as a means to enhance the fidelity of abacussummit halo catalogues by flagging and ‘merging’ haloes deemed to exhibit non-monotonic past merger histories. We show that this cleaning technique identifies portions of the halo population that have been deblended due to choices made by the halo finder, but which could have feasibly been part of larger aggregate systems. We demonstrate that by cleaning halo catalogues in this post-processing step, we remove potentially unphysical features in the default halo catalogues, leaving behind a more robust halo population that can be used to create highly accurate mock galaxy realizations from abacussummit.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Hydrodynamic simulations of white dwarf–white dwarf mergers and the origin of R Coronae Borealis stars

We study the properties of double white dwarf (DWD) mergers by performing hydrodynamic simulations using the new and improved adaptive mesh refinement code OCTO-TIGER. We follow the orbital evolution of DWD systems of mass ratio $q=0.7$ for tens of orbits until and after the merger to investigate them as a possible origin for R Coronae Borealis (RCB) type stars. We reproduce previous results, finding that during the merger, the helium WD donor star is tidally disrupted within 20–80 min since the beginning of the simulation onto the accretor carbon–oxygen WD, creating a high temperature shell around the accretor. We investigate the possible helium burning in this shell and the merged object’s general structure. Specifically, we are interested in the amount of oxygen-16 dredged-up from the accretor to the hot shell and the amount of oxygen-18 produced. This is critical as the discovery of very low oxygen-16 to oxygen-18 ratios in RCB stars pointed out the merger scenario as a favourable explanation for their origin. A small amount of hydrogen in the donor may help keep the oxygen-16 to oxygen-18 ratios within observational bounds, even if moderate dredge-up from the accretor occurs. In addition, we perform a resolution study to reconcile the difference found in the amount of oxygen-16 dredge-up between smoothed-particle hydrodynamics and grid-based simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Signatures of deconfined quark phases in binary neutron star mergers

We investigate the quark deconfinement phase transition in the context of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers. We employ a new finite-temperature composition-dependent equation of state (EOS) with a first order phase transition between hadrons and deconfined quarks to perform numerical relativity simulations of BNS mergers. Here, the softening of the EOS due to the phase transition causes the merger remnants to be more compact and to collapse to a black hole (BH) at earlier times. The phase transition is imprinted on the postmerger gravitational wave (GW) signal duration, amplitude, and peak frequency. However, this imprint is only detectable for binaries with sufficiently long-lived remnants. Moreover, the phase transition does not result in significant deviations from quasi-universal relations for the postmerger GW peak frequency. We also study the impact of the phase transition on dynamical ejecta, remnant accretion disk masses, r-process nucleosynthetic yields and associated electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. While there are differences in the EM counterparts and nucleosynthesis yields between the purely hadronic models and the models with phase transitions, these can be primarily ascribed to the difference in remnant collapse time between the two. An exception is the non-thermal afterglow caused by the interaction of the fastest component of the dynamical ejecta and the interstellar medium, which is systematically boosted in the binaries with phase transition as a consequence of the more violent merger they experience.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Interpretable AI forecasting for numerical relativity waveforms of quasicircular, spinning, nonprecessing binary black hole mergers

We present a deep-learning artificial intelligence model (AI) that is capable of learning and forecasting the late-inspiral, merger and ringdown of numerical relativity waveforms that describe quasicircular, spinning, nonprecessing binary black hole mergers. We used the NRHybSur3dq8 surrogate model to produce train, validation and test sets of ℓ = |m| = 2 waveforms that cover the parameter space of binary black hole mergers with mass ratios q ≤ 8 and individual spins |s$^{z}_ {(1,2)}$| ≤ 0.8. These waveforms cover the time range t ∊ [-5000 M, 130 M], where t = 0M marks the merger event, defined as the maximum value of the waveform amplitude. We harnessed the ThetaGPU supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to train our AI model using a training set of 1.5 million waveforms. We used 16 NVIDIA DGX A100 nodes, each consisting of 8 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs and 2 AMD Rome CPUs, to fully train our model within 3.5 h. Our findings show that artificial intelligence can accurately forecast the dynamical evolution of numerical relativity waveforms in the time range t ∊ [-100 M, 130 M]. Sampling a test set of 190,000 waveforms, we find that the average overlap between target and predicted waveforms is ≳99% over the entire parameter space under consideration. We also combined scientific visualization and accelerated computing to identify what components of our model take in knowledge from the early and late-time waveform evolution to accurately forecast the latter part of numerical relativity waveforms. This work aims to accelerate the creation of scalable, computationally efficient and interpretable artificial intelligence models for gravitational wave astrophysics

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cocoon shock breakout emission from binary neutron star mergers

Shock breakout emission is among the first observable signals in a wide variety of astrophysical phenomena, including neutron star (NS) mergers, and it can be the dominant component in low-luminosity short γ-ray bursts, as exemplified by GRB 170817A. In this work, we investigate the cocoon shock breakout emission in NS mergers and how its signal depends on the outermost layers of the ejecta profile, which we derive from general relativistic radiation hydrodynamic simulations. We study the formation of the cocoon as a consequence of a relativistic jet propagating through the ejecta. To explore the influence of the outermost layers of the ejecta on the breakout emission, we explore cases where the ejecta has a sharp cutoff or an extended smooth tail. We find that the shock breakout emission is strongly influenced by the shape of the ejecta outer layers, with extended tails yielding results consistent with the observed properties of GRB 170817A, whereas sharp cutoffs overestimate the radiated energy. Using a Bayesian analysis, we estimate the best fit parameters of the central engine, considering both accreting black hole and magnetized neutron star scenarios. Our findings indicate a slight preference for the scenarios where the engine is a black hole. Furthermore, our work probes the nature of neutron star mergers and highlights the importance of the shape of the ejecta profile in modeling early electromagnetic counterparts to these mergers.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Signature of hadron-quark crossover in binary-neutron-star mergers

Here, we study observational signatures of the hadron-quark crossover in binary-neutron-star mergers by numerical-relativity simulations with various mass configurations. We employ two equations of state (EoSs) for matter consistent with inference from the observational data. In the crossover scenario the EoS is softened in a density realized in binary-neutron-star mergers and is smoothly continued to quark matter. In the phase transition scenario without crossover, the EoS remains stiff and a first-order phase transition takes place in a density out of reach of mergers. A GW170817-like system forms a remnant massive neutron star in both scenarios, and it collapses into a black hole only in the crossover scenario due to the softening while gravitational-wave emission is strong. This difference is clearly reflected in the sudden shutdown of gravitational waves. For a given EoS, the lifetime of the merger remnant is determined primarily by the total mass of the system. Identifying these features in a variety of future events with the next generation of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors will enable us to clarify details of hadron-quark transition. The mass of the accretion disk surrounding the remnant black hole is affected not only by the lifetime of the remnant but also by the mass ratio of the system. Electromagnetic emission associated with the disk outflow will also be useful for detailed investigation of the hadron-quark transition.

QCD phase transitions↗