Figure 5

Figure 5: Isodensity contours and velocity profile in the equatorial plane for a merger of two unequal-mass NSs with M1 = 1.3M ⊙ and M2 = 1.6M ⊙, with both assumed to follow the APR model [3] for the NS EOS. In unequal-mass mergers, the lower mass NS is tidally disrupted during the merger, forming a disk-like structure around the heavier NS. In this case, the total mass of the remnant is sufficiently high for prompt collapse to a BH, but 0.85% of the total mass remains outside the BH horizon at the end of the simulation, which is substantially larger than for equal-mass mergers with prompt collapse (see Figure 4). Image reproduced by permission from Figure 6 of [144], copyright by APS.