Welcome to the Multi-Messenger Era! Lessons from a Neutron Star Merger and the Landscape Ahead

Abstract

The discovery by Advanced LIGO/Virgo of gravitational waves from the binary neutron star (NS) merger GW170817, and subsequently by astronomers of transient counterparts across the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, has initiated the era of multi-messenger astronomy. Given the slew of papers appearing on this event, I thought it useful to summarize the EM discoveries in the context of theoretical models and present my views on the major take-away lessons from this watershed event. The weak GRB discovered in close time coincidence with GW170817, and potential evidence for a more powerful off-axis relativistic jet (initially beamed away from our line of sight) from the delayed rise of a non-thermal X-ray and radio orphan afterglow, provides the most compelling evidence yet that cosmological short GRBs originate from binary NS mergers. The luminosity and colors of the early optical emission discovered within a day of the merger agrees strikingly well with original predictions (Metzger et al. 2010) for "kilonova" emission powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei, the NS merger origin of which was initially proposed by Lattimer & Schramm 1974. The transition of the spectral energy distribution to NIR wavelengths on timescales of days matches predictions by Barnes & Kasen 2013 and Tanaka & Hotokezaka 2013 if a portion of the ejecta contains heavy r-process nuclei with higher opacities. The "blue" and "red" ejecta components may possess distinct origins (e.g. dynamical ejecta versus accretion disk outflows), with key implications for the merger physics and the properties of neutron stars. I outline the diversity in the EM emission expected from additional mergers-observed with different binary masses and viewing angles-discovered once LIGO/Virgo reach design sensitivity and NS mergers are discovered as frequently as once per week.