On the possibility of GW190425 being a black hole--neutron star binary merger

Abstract

We argue that the kilonova/macronova associated with the gravitational-wave event GW190425 could have been bright enough to be detected if it was caused by the merger of a low-mass black hole and a neutron star. Although tidal disruption occurs for such a low-mass black hole as is generally expected, the masses of the dynamical ejecta are limited to <~10^{-3}M_sun, which is consistent with previous work in the literature. The remnant disk could be as massive as 0.05--0.1M_sun, and the disk outflow of ~0.01--0.03M_sun is likely to be driven by viscous or magnetohydrodynamic effects. The disk outflow may not be neutron-rich enough to synthesize an abundance of lanthanide elements, even in the absence of strong neutrino emitter, if the ejection is driven on the viscous time scale of >~0.3s. If this is the case, the opacity of the disk outflow is kept moderate, and a kilonova/macronova at the distance of GW190425 reaches a detectable brightness of 20--21mag at 1day after merger for most viewing angles. If some disk activity ejects the mass within ~0.1s, instead, lanthanide-rich outflows would be launched and the detection of emission becomes challenging. Future possible detections of kilonovae/macronovae from GW190425-like systems will disfavor the prompt collapse of binary neutron stars and a non-disruptive low-mass black hole--neutron star binary associated with a small neutron-star radius, whose mass ejection is negligible. The host-galaxy distance will constrain the viewing angle and deliver further information about the mass ejection.