The Dynamics and Outcomes of Rapid Infall onto Neutron Stars

Abstract

We present an extensive study of accretion onto neutron stars in which the velocity of the neutron star and structure of the surrounding medium is such that the Bondi-Hoyle accretion exceeds .001 Msun/y. For most cases, hypercritical accretion due to rapid neutrino cooling allows the neutron star to accrete above the Bondi-Hoyle rate as previously pointed out by Chevalier. However, for a subset of simulations which corresponds to evolutionarily common events, convection driven by neutrino heating can lead to explosions by a mechanism similar to that found in core-collapse supernovae. Armed with the results from our calculations, we are in a position to predict the fate of a range of rapid-infall neutron star accretors present in certain low-mass X-ray binaries, common envelope systems, supernova fallbacks and Thorne-Zytkow objects (TZOs). A majority of the common envelope systems that we considered led to explosions expelling the envelope, halting the neutron star's inward spiral, and allowing the formation of close binary systems. Smothered neutron stars produced in collisions also lead to explosions, preventing them from forming millisecond pulsars. For supernovae in which the fallback of material towards the neutron star is large, we find that a black hole is formed within a few seconds. Finally, we argue that the current set of TZO formation scenarios is inadequate and leads instead to hypercritical accretion and black hole formation. Moreover, it appears that many of the current TZ models have structures ill-suited for modeling by mixing length convection. This has prompted us to develop a simple test to determine the viability of this approximation for a variety of convective systems.