arXiv subjects

Christian D. Ott

Publications and source records attributed to Christian D. Ott.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

How loud are neutron star mergers?

We present results from the first large parameter study of neutron star mergers using fully general relativistic simulations with finite-temperature microphysical equations of state and neutrino cooling. We consider equal and unequal-mass binaries drawn from the galactic population and simulate each binary with three different equations of state. Our focus is on the emission of energy and angular momentum in gravitational waves in the postmerger phase. We find that the emitted gravitational-wave energy in the first $\sim$$10\,\mathrm{ms}$ of the life of the resulting hypermassive neutron star (HMNS) is about twice the energy emitted over the entire inspiral history of the binary. The total radiated energy per binary mass is comparable to or larger than that of nonspinning black hole inspiral-mergers. About $0.8-2.5\%$ of the binary mass-energy is emitted at kHz frequencies in the early HMNS evolution. We find a clear dependence of the postmerger GW emission on binary configuration and equation of state and show that it can be encoded as a broad function of the binary tidal coupling constant $κ^T_2$. Our results also demonstrate that the dimensionless spin of black holes resulting from subsequent HMNS collapse are limited to $\lesssim0.7-0.8$. This may significantly impact the neutrino pair annihilation mechanism for powering short gamma-ray bursts (sGRB).

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Simulations of inspiraling and merging double neutron stars using the Spectral Einstein Code

We present results on the inspiral, merger, and post-merger evolution of a neutron star - neutron star (NSNS) system. Our results are obtained using the hybrid pseudospectral-finite volume Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC). To test our numerical methods, we evolve an equal-mass system for $\approx 22$ orbits before merger. This waveform is the longest waveform obtained from fully general-relativistic simulations for NSNSs to date. Such long (and accurate) numerical waveforms are required to further improve semi-analytical models used in gravitational wave data analysis, for example the effective one body models. We discuss in detail the improvements to SpEC's ability to simulate NSNS mergers, in particular mesh refined grids to better resolve the merger and post-merger phases. We provide a set of consistency checks and compare our results to NSNS merger simulations with the independent BAM code. We find agreement between them, which increases confidence in results obtained with either code. This work paves the way for future studies using long waveforms and more complex microphysical descriptions of neutron star matter in SpEC.

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arXiv2016

Numerical simulations of stellar collapse in scalar-tensor theories of gravity

We present numerical-relativity simulations of spherically symmetric core collapse and compact-object formation in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. The additional scalar degree of freedom introduces a propagating monopole gravitational-wave mode. Detection of monopole scalar waves with current and future gravitational-wave experiments may constitute smoking gun evidence for strong-field modifications of General Relativity. We collapse both polytropic and more realistic pre-supernova profiles using a high-resolution shock-capturing scheme and an approximate prescription for the nuclear equation of state. The most promising sources of scalar radiation are protoneutron stars collapsing to black holes. In case of a Galactic core collapse event forming a black hole, Advanced LIGO may be able to place independent constraints on the parameters of the theory at a level comparable to current Solar-System and binary-pulsar measurements. In the region of the parameter space admitting spontaneously scalarised stars, transition to configurations with prominent scalar hair before black-hole formation further enhances the emitted signal. Although a more realistic treatment of the microphysics is necessary to fully investigate the occurrence of spontaneous scalarisation of neutron star remnants, we speculate that formation of such objects could constrain the parameters of the theory beyond the current bounds obtained with Solar-System and binary-pulsar experiments.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Dynamical Mass Ejection from Binary Neutron Star Mergers

We present fully general-relativistic simulations of binary neutron star mergers with a temperature and composition dependent nuclear equation of state. We study the dynamical mass ejection from both quasi-circular and dynamical-capture eccentric mergers. We systematically vary the level of our treatment of the microphysics to isolate the effects of neutrino cooling and heating and we compute the nucleosynthetic yields of the ejecta. We find that eccentric binaries can eject significantly more material than quasi-circular binaries and generate bright infrared and radio emission. In all our simulations the outflow is composed of a combination of tidally- and shock-driven ejecta, mostly distributed over a broad $\sim 60^\circ$ angle from the orbital plane, and, to a lesser extent, by thermally driven winds at high latitudes. Ejecta from eccentric mergers are typically more neutron rich than those of quasi-circular mergers. We find neutrino cooling and heating to affect, quantitatively and qualitatively, composition, morphology, and total mass of the outflows. This is also reflected in the infrared and radio signatures of the binary. The final nucleosynthetic yields of the ejecta are robust and insensitive to input physics or merger type in the regions of the second and third r-process peaks. The yields for elements on the first peak vary between our simulations, but none of our models is able to explain the Solar abundances of first-peak elements without invoking additional first-peak contributions from either neutrino and viscously-driven winds operating on longer timescales after the mergers, or from core-collapse supernovae.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Black Hole-Neutron Star Mergers with a Hot Nuclear Equation of State: Outflow and Neutrino-Cooled Disk for a Low-Mass, High-Spin Case

Neutrino emission significantly affects the evolution of the accretion tori formed in black hole-neutron star mergers. It removes energy from the disk, alters its composition, and provides a potential power source for a gamma-ray burst. To study these effects, simulations in general relativity with a hot microphysical equation of state and neutrino feedback are needed. We present the first such simulation, using a neutrino leakage scheme for cooling to capture the most essential effects and considering a moderate mass (1.4 M_{\odot} neutron star, 5.6 M_{\odot} black hole), high spin (black hole J/M^2=0.9) system with the K_0=220 MeV Lattimer-Swesty equation of state. We find that about 0.08 M_{\odot} of nuclear matter is ejected from the system, while another 0.3 M_{\odot} forms a hot, compact accretion disk. The primary effects of the escaping neutrinos are (i) to make the disk much denser and more compact, (ii) to cause the average electron fraction Y_e of the disk to rise to about 0.2 and then gradually decrease again, and (iii) to gradually cool the disk. The disk is initially hot (T~6 MeV) and luminous in neutrinos (L_ν~10^{54} erg s^{-1}), but the neutrino luminosity decreases by an order of magnitude over 50 ms of post-merger evolution.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Numerical Modeling of the Early Light Curves of Type IIP Supernovae

The early rise of Type IIP supernovae (SN IIP) provides important information for constraining the properties of their progenitors. This can in turn be compared to pre-explosion imaging constraints and stellar models to develop a more complete picture of how massive stars evolve and end their lives. Using the SuperNova Explosion Code (SNEC), we model the first 40 days of SNe IIP to better understand what constraints can be derived from their early light curves. We use two sets of red supergiant progenitor models with zero-age main sequence masses in the range between 9 Msol and 20 Msol. We find that the early properties of the light curve depend most sensitively on the radius of the progenitor, and thus provide a relation between the g-band rise time and the radius at the time of explosion. This relation will be useful for deriving constraints on progenitors from future observations, especially in cases where detailed modeling of the entire rise is not practical. When comparing to observed rise times, the radii we find are a factor of a few larger than previous semi-analytic derivations and generally in better agreement with what is found with current stellar evolution calculations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Neutrino-Driven Convection in Core-Collapse Supernovae: High-Resolution Simulations

We present results from high-resolution semi-global simulations of neutrino-driven convection in core-collapse supernovae. We employ an idealized setup with parametrized neutrino heating/cooling and nuclear dissociation at the shock front. We study the internal dynamics of neutrino-driven convection and its role in re-distributing energy and momentum through the gain region. We find that even if buoyant plumes are able to locally transfer heat up to the shock, convection is not able to create a net positive energy flux and overcome the downwards transport of energy from the accretion flow. Turbulent convection does, however, provide a significant effective pressure support to the accretion flow as it favors the accumulation of energy, mass and momentum in the gain region. We derive an approximate equation that is able to explain and predict the shock evolution in terms of integrals of quantities such as the turbulent pressure in the gain region or the effects of non-radial motion of the fluid. We use this relation as a way to quantify the role of turbulence in the dynamics of the accretion shock. Finally, we investigate the effects of grid resolution, which we change by a factor 20 between the lowest and highest resolution. Our results show that the shallow slopes of the turbulent kinetic energy spectra reported in previous studies are a numerical artefact. Kolmogorov scaling is progressively recovered as the resolution is increased.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Gravitational waveforms for neutron star binaries from binary black hole simulations

Gravitational waves from binary neutron star (BNS) and black hole/neutron star (BHNS) inspirals are primary sources for detection by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The tidal forces acting on the neutron stars induce changes in the phase evolution of the gravitational waveform, and these changes can be used to constrain the nuclear equation of state. Current methods of generating BNS and BHNS waveforms rely on either computationally challenging full 3D hydrodynamical simulations or approximate analytic solutions. We introduce a new method for computing inspiral waveforms for BNS/BHNS systems by adding the post-Newtonian (PN) tidal effects to full numerical simulations of binary black holes (BBHs), effectively replacing the nontidal terms in the PN expansion with BBH results. Comparing a waveform generated with this method against a full hydrodynamical simulation of a BNS inspiral yields a phase difference of $<1$ radian over $\sim 15$ orbits. The numerical phase accuracy required of BNS simulations to measure the accuracy of the method we present here is estimated as a function of the tidal deformability parameter $λ$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Low mass binary neutron star mergers : gravitational waves and neutrino emission

Neutron star mergers are among the most promising sources of gravitational waves for advanced ground-based detectors. These mergers are also expected to power bright electromagnetic signals, in the form of short gamma-ray bursts, infrared/optical transients, and radio emission. Simulations of these mergers with fully general relativistic codes are critical to understand the merger and post-merger gravitational wave signals and their neutrinos and electromagnetic counterparts. In this paper, we employ the SpEC code to simulate the merger of low-mass neutron star binaries (two $1.2M_\odot$ neutron stars) for a set of three nuclear-theory based, finite temperature equations of state. We show that the frequency peaks of the post-merger gravitational wave signal are in good agreement with predictions obtained from simulations using a simpler treatment of gravity. We find, however, that only the fundamental mode of the remnant is excited for long periods of time: emission at the secondary peaks is damped on a millisecond timescale in the simulated binaries. For such low-mass systems, the remnant is a massive neutron star which, depending on the equation of state, is either permanently stable or long-lived. We observe strong excitations of l=2, m=2 modes, both in the massive neutron star and in the form of hot, shocked tidal arms in the surrounding accretion torus. We estimate the neutrino emission of the remnant using a neutrino leakage scheme and, in one case, compare these results with a gray two-moment neutrino transport scheme. We confirm the complex geometry of the neutrino emission, also observed in previous simulations with neutrino leakage, and show explicitly the presence of important differences in the neutrino luminosity, disk composition, and outflow properties between the neutrino leakage and transport schemes.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Implicit large eddy simulations of anisotropic weakly compressible turbulence with application to core-collapse supernovae

(Abridged) In the implicit large eddy simulation (ILES) paradigm, the dissipative nature of high-resolution shock-capturing schemes is exploited to provide an implicit model of turbulence. Recent 3D simulations suggest that turbulence might play a crucial role in core-collapse supernova explosions, however the fidelity with which turbulence is simulated in these studies is unclear. Especially considering that the accuracy of ILES for the regime of interest in CCSN, weakly compressible and strongly anisotropic, has not been systematically assessed before. In this paper we assess the accuracy of ILES using numerical methods most commonly employed in computational astrophysics by means of a number of local simulations of driven, weakly compressible, anisotropic turbulence. We report a detailed analysis of the way in which the turbulent cascade is influenced by the numerics. Our results suggest that anisotropy and compressibility in CCSN turbulence have little effect on the turbulent kinetic energy spectrum and a Kolmogorov $k^{-5/3}$ scaling is obtained in the inertial range. We find that, on the one hand, the kinetic energy dissipation rate at large scales is correctly captured even at relatively low resolutions, suggesting that very high effective Reynolds number can be achieved at the largest scales of the simulation. On the other hand, the dynamics at intermediate scales appears to be completely dominated by the so-called bottleneck effect, \ie the pile up of kinetic energy close to the dissipation range due to the partial suppression of the energy cascade by numerical viscosity. An inertial range is not recovered until the point where relatively high resolution $\sim 512^3$, which would be difficult to realize in global simulations, is reached. We discuss the consequences for CCSN simulations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Post-merger evolution of a neutron star-black hole binary with neutrino transport

We present a first simulation of the post-merger evolution of a black hole-neutron star binary in full general relativity using an energy-integrated general relativistic truncated moment formalism for neutrino transport. We describe our implementation of the moment formalism and important tests of our code, before studying the formation phase of a disk after a black hole-neutron star merger. We use as initial data an existing general relativistic simulation of the merger of a neutron star of 1.4 solar mass with a black hole of 7 solar mass and dimensionless spin a/M=0.8. Comparing with a simpler leakage scheme for the treatment of the neutrinos, we find noticeable differences in the neutron to proton ratio in and around the disk, and in the neutrino luminosity. We find that the electron neutrino luminosity is much lower in the transport simulations, and that the remnant is less neutron-rich. The spatial distribution of the neutrinos is significantly affected by relativistic effects. Over the short timescale evolved, we do not observe purely neutrino-driven outflows. However, a small amount of material (3e-4Msun) is ejected in the polar region during the circularization of the disk. Most of that material is ejected early in the formation of the disk, and is fairly neutron rich. Through r-process nucleosynthesis, that material should produce high-opacity lanthanides in the polar region, and could thus affect the lightcurve of radioactively powered electromagnetic transients. We also show that by the end of the simulation, while the bulk of the disk is neutron-rich, its outer layers have a higher electron fraction. As that material would be the first to be unbound by disk outflows on longer timescales, the changes in Ye experienced during the formation of the disk could have an impact on the nucleosynthesis outputs from neutrino-driven and viscously-driven outflows. [Abridged]

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

The Black Hole Formation Probability

A longstanding question in stellar evolution is which massive stars produce black holes (BHs) rather than neutron stars (NSs) upon death. It has been common practice to assume that a given zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) mass star (and perhaps a given metallicity) simply produces either an NS or a BH, but this fails to account for a myriad of other variables that may effect this outcome, such as spin, binarity, or even stochastic differences in the stellar structure near core collapse. We argue that instead a probabilistic description of NS versus BH formation may be better suited to account for the current uncertainties in understanding how massive stars die. We present an initial exploration of the probability that a star will make a BH as a function of its ZAMS mass, $P_{\rm BH}(M_{\rm ZAMS})$. Although we find that it is difficult to derive a unique $P_{\rm BH}(M_{\rm ZAMS})$ using current measurements of both the BH mass distribution and the degree of chemical enrichment by massive stars, we demonstrate how $P_{\rm BH}(M_{\rm ZAMS})$ changes with these various observational and theoretical uncertainties. We anticipate that future studies of Galactic BHs and theoretical studies of core collapse will refine $P_{\rm BH}(M_{\rm ZAMS})$ and argue that this framework is an important new step toward better understanding BH formation. A probabilistic description of BH formation will be useful as input for future population synthesis studies that are interested in the formation of X-ray binaries, the nature and event rate of gravitational wave sources, and answering questions about chemical enrichment.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

The Role of Turbulence in Neutrino-Driven Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions

The neutrino-heated "gain layer" immediately behind the stalled shock in a core-collapse supernova is unstable to high-Reynolds-number turbulent convection. We carry out and analyze a new set of 19 high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) simulations with a three-species neutrino leakage/heating scheme and compare with spherically-symmetric (1D) and axisymmetric (2D) simulations carried out with the same methods. We study the postbounce supernova evolution in a $15$-$M_\odot$ progenitor star and vary the local neutrino heating rate, the magnitude and spatial dependence of asphericity from convective burning in the Si/O shell, and spatial resolution. Our simulations suggest that there is a direct correlation between the strength of turbulence in the gain layer and the susceptability to explosion. 2D and 3D simulations explode at much lower neutrino heating rates than 1D simulations. This is commonly explained by the fact that nonradial dynamics allows accreting material to stay longer in the gain layer. We show that this explanation is incomplete. Our results indicate that the effective turbulent ram pressure exerted on the shock plays a crucial role by allowing multi-D models to explode at a lower postshock thermal pressure and thus with less neutrino heating than 1D models. We connect the turbulent ram pressure with turbulent energy at large scales and in this way explain why 2D simulations are erroneously exploding more easily than 3D simulations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Neutron star-black hole mergers with a nuclear equation of state and neutrino cooling: Dependence in the binary parameters

We present a first exploration of the results of neutron star-black hole mergers using black hole masses in the most likely range of $7M_\odot-10M_\odot$, a neutrino leakage scheme, and a modeling of the neutron star material through a finite-temperature nuclear-theory based equation of state. In the range of black hole spins in which the neutron star is tidally disrupted ($χ_{\rm BH}\gtrsim 0.7$), we show that the merger consistently produces large amounts of cool ($T\lesssim 1\,{\rm MeV}$), unbound, neutron-rich material ($M_{\rm ej}\sim 0.05M_\odot-0.20M_\odot$). A comparable amount of bound matter is initially divided between a hot disk ($T_{\rm max}\sim 15\,{\rm MeV}$) with typical neutrino luminosity $L_ν\sim 10^{53}\,{\rm erg/s}$, and a cooler tidal tail. After a short period of rapid protonization of the disk lasting $\sim 10\,{\rm ms}$, the accretion disk cools down under the combined effects of the fall-back of cool material from the tail, continued accretion of the hottest material onto the black hole, and neutrino emission. As the temperature decreases, the disk progressively becomes more neutron-rich, with dimmer neutrino emission. This cooling process should stop once the viscous heating in the disk (not included in our simulations) balances the cooling. These mergers of neutron star-black hole binaries with black hole masses $M_{\rm BH}\sim 7M_\odot-10M_\odot$ and black hole spins high enough for the neutron star to disrupt provide promising candidates for the production of short gamma-ray bursts, of bright infrared post-merger signals due to the radioactive decay of unbound material, and of large amounts of r-process nuclei.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Multivariate Regression Analysis of Gravitational Waves from Rotating Core Collapse

We present a new multivariate regression model for analysis and parameter estimation of gravitational waves observed from well but not perfectly modeled sources such as core-collapse supernovae. Our approach is based on a principal component decomposition of simulated waveform catalogs. Instead of reconstructing waveforms by direct linear combination of physically meaningless principal components, we solve via least squares for the relationship that encodes the connection between chosen physical parameters and the principal component basis. Although our approach is linear, the waveforms' parameter dependence may be non-linear. For the case of gravitational waves from rotating core collapse, we show, using statistical hypothesis testing, that our method is capable of identifying the most important physical parameters that govern waveform morphology in the presence of simulated detector noise. We also demonstrate our method's ability to predict waveforms from a principal component basis given a set of physical progenitor parameters.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Magnetic effects on the low-T/|W| instability in differentially rotating neutron stars

Dynamical instabilities in protoneutron stars may produce gravitational waves whose observation could shed light on the physics of core-collapse supernovae. When born with sufficient differential rotation, these stars are susceptible to a shear instability (the "low-T/|W| instability"), but such rotation can also amplify magnetic fields to strengths where they have a considerable impact on the dynamics of the stellar matter. Using a new magnetohydrodynamics module for the Spectral Einstein Code, we have simulated a differentially-rotating neutron star in full 3D to study the effects of magnetic fields on this instability. Though strong toroidal fields were predicted to suppress the low-T/|W| instability, we find that they do so only in a small range of field strengths. Below 4e13 G, poloidal seed fields do not wind up fast enough to have an effect before the instability saturates, while above 5e14 G, magnetic instabilities can actually amplify a global quadrupole mode (this threshold may be even lower in reality, as small-scale magnetic instabilities remain difficult to resolve numerically). Thus, the prospects for observing gravitational waves from such systems are not in fact diminished over most of the magnetic parameter space. Additionally, we report that the detailed development of the low-T/|W| instability, including its growth rate, depends strongly on the particular numerical methods used. The high-order methods we employ suggest that growth might be considerably slower than found in some previous simulations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

Measuring the Angular Momentum Distribution in Core-Collapse Supernova Progenitors with Gravitational Waves

The late collapse, core bounce, and the early postbounce phase of rotating core collapse leads to a characteristic gravitational wave (GW) signal. The precise shape of the signal is governed by the interplay of gravity, rotation, nuclear equation of state (EOS), and electron capture during collapse. We explore the dependence of the signal on total angular momentum and its distribution in the progenitor core by means of a large set of axisymmetric general-relativistic core collapse simulations in which we vary the initial angular momentum distribution in the core. Our simulations include a microphysical finite-temperature EOS, an approximate electron capture treatment during collapse, and a neutrino leakage scheme for the postbounce evolution. We find that the precise distribution of angular momentum is relevant only for very rapidly rotating cores with T/|W|>~8% at bounce. We construct a numerical template bank from our baseline set of simulations, and carry out additional simulations to generate trial waveforms for injection into simulated advanced LIGO noise at a fiducial galactic distance of 10 kpc. Using matched filtering, we show that for an optimally-oriented source and Gaussian noise, advanced Advanced LIGO could measure the total angular momentum to within ~20%, for rapidly rotating cores. For most waveforms, the nearest known degree of precollapse differential rotation is correctly inferred by both our matched filtering analysis and an alternative Bayesian model selection approach. We test our results for robustness against systematic uncertainties by injecting waveforms from simulations using a different EOS and and variations in the electron fraction in the inner core. The results of these tests show that these uncertainties significantly reduce the accuracy with which the total angular momentum and its precollapse distribution can be inferred from observations.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Revival of The Stalled Core-Collapse Supernova Shock Triggered by Precollapse Asphericity in the Progenitor Star

Multi-dimensional simulations of advanced nuclear burning stages of massive stars suggest that the Si/O layers of presupernova stars harbor large deviations from the spherical symmetry typically assumed for presupernova stellar structure. We carry out three-dimensional core-collapse supernova simulations with and without aspherical velocity perturbations to assess their potential impact on the supernova hydrodynamics in the stalled shock phase. Our results show that realistic perturbations can qualitatively alter the postbounce evolution, triggering an explosion in a model that fails to explode without them. This finding underlines the need for a multi-dimensional treatment of the presupernova stage of stellar evolution.

astro-ph.HE↗