General-relativistic simulations of binary black hole-neutron stars: Precursor electromagnetic signals

Vasileios Paschalidis, Zachariah B. Etienne, Stuart L. Shapiro

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

77 Scopus citations

Abstract

We perform the first general relativistic force-free simulations of neutron star magnetospheres in orbit about spinning and nonspinning black holes. We find promising precursor electromagnetic emission: typical Poynting luminosities at, e.g., an orbital separation of r=6.6RNS are L EM∼6×1042(BNS,p/1013 G) 2(MNS/1.4M) 2 erg/s. The Poynting flux peaks within a broad beam of ∼40 in the azimuthal direction and within ∼60 from the orbital plane, establishing a possible lighthouse effect. Our calculations, though preliminary, preview more detailed simulations of these systems that we plan to perform in the future.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number021504
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume88
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 9 2013
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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