On the Progenitor of Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817
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Abbott_2017_ApJL_850_L40.pdf
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3.11 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Virgo Collaboration
Aggarwal, Nancy
Barsotti, Lisa
Biscans, Sebastien
Buikema, Aaron
Demos, Nicholas
Donovan, Frederick J
Eisenstein, Robert Alan
Essick, Reed Clasey
Date Issued
December 2017
Journal
Astrophysical Journal. Letters
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Abbott, B. P. et al. “On the Progenitor of Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817.” The Astrophysical Journal 850, 2 (December 2017): L40 © 2017 The American Astronomical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
On 2017 August 17 the merger of two compact objects with masses consistent with two neutron stars was discovered through gravitational-wave (GW170817), gamma-ray (GRB 170817A), and optical (SSS17a/AT 2017gfo) observations. The optical source was associated with the early-type galaxy NGC 4993 at a distance of just ∼40 Mpc, consistent with the gravitational-wave measurement, and the merger was localized to be at a projected distance of ∼2 kpc away from the galaxy's center. We use this minimal set of facts and the mass posteriors of the two neutron stars to derive the first constraints on the progenitor of GW170817 at the time of the second supernova (SN). We generate simulated progenitor populations and follow the three-dimensional kinematic evolution from binary neutron star (BNS) birth to the merger time, accounting for pre-SN galactic motion, for considerably different input distributions of the progenitor mass, pre-SN semimajor axis, and SN-kick velocity. Though not considerably tight, we find these constraints to be comparable to those for Galactic BNS progenitors. The derived constraints are very strongly influenced by the requirement of keeping the binary bound after the second SN and having the merger occur relatively close to the center of the galaxy. These constraints are insensitive to the galaxy's star formation history, provided the stellar populations are older than 1 Gyr.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
LIGO (Observatory : Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/AA93FC
