Mass loss was suppressed in numerical simulations by constructing irrotational, rather than synchronized, initial data. Irrotational flow is widely thought to be the more physically realistic case, since viscous forces are much too weak to synchronize a NS prior to merger [45, 146]. When irrotational NSs (which are counter-rotating in the corotating frame of the binary) first make contact, a vortex sheet forms. Since the low-density fluid layers at the contact surface are surrounded at first contact by the denser fluid layers located originally within each NS, the configuration is well understood to be Kelvin–Helmholtz unstable, resulting in rapid mixing through vortex production. Meanwhile, mass loss through the outer Lagrange points is hampered by the reduced rotational velocity along the outer halves of each NS.
The GW emission from these mergers is composed of a “chirp,” increasing in frequency and amplitude as the NSs spiral inward, followed by a ringdown signal once the stars collide and merge. In [330, 331], a procedure to calculate the energy spectrum in the frequency band was laid out, with the resulting signal following the quadrupole, point-mass power-law form up to GW frequencies characterizing the beginning of the plunge. Above the plunge frequency, a sharp drop in the GW energy was seen, followed in some cases by spikes at kHz frequencies representing coherent emission during the ringdown phase.
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2012-8 |
Living Rev. Relativity 15, (2012), 8
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