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Francois Foucart

Publications and source records attributed to Francois Foucart.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Machine Learning Detection of Non-Axisymmetric Fast Flavor Instabilities in Compact Objects

Neutrinos in dense astrophysical environments such as core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and neutron star mergers (NSMs) can undergo FFCs, which could develop on extremely small scales. A necessary condition for the occurrence of FFCs is the presence of a zero crossing in the electron lepton number (ELN) angular distribution of neutrinos. In this work, we explore machine learning (ML) approaches to detect non-axisymmetric ELN crossings in these environments, based on input features of the $\nu_e$ and $\bar\nu_e$ zeroth and first angular moments. Overall, the ML models demonstrate relatively good generalizability for most of the unseen test datasets generated by various methods that do not assume the same underlying angular distributions as used in the training set. Interestingly, while the model's performance is mediocre for an axisymmetric distribution dataset derived by solving the discretized Boltzmann transport equation under 1D CCSN background, imposing an artificial non-axisymmetry substantially improves the performance. We also find that for the flavor-equilibrated angular distributions, although our ML model trained based solely on ELN inputs performs poorly when the true crossings depend on the post-equilibrated angular distributions of heavy lepton neutrinos and antineutrinos, which become different, it delivers strong performance in detecting ELN crossings when the heavy-lepton neutrino and antineutrino distributions are artificially removed. This highlights the need for additional input features to further improve the model. This is a crucial step toward successfully integrating FFCs into large-scale CCSN and NSM simulations.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Impact of neutrino-electron scattering and an improved treatment of pair processes on binary neutron star mergers

Multimessenger observations of neutron star mergers are unique opportunities to constrain the properties of dense matter and the production site of heavy nuclei. To leverage these observations, we require reliable models of the electromagnetic signals powered by mergers. An important limitation to our ability to develop such models is the use of approximate neutrino physics in simulations. Here, we present simulations using an improved version of our Monte Carlo transport algorithm specifically designed to allow for more advanced on-the-fly calculations of reaction rates that use the simulated energy distribution of neutrinos, including in blocking factors, while still relying on approximations for the angular distribution of neutrinos. We use these new methods to include in simulations inelastic scattering of neutrinos on electrons, and to improve our treatment of neutrino-antineutrino pair annihilation. We find that, without increasing the cost of simulations, we can marginally get to the point when the addition of a single packet represents a change $\Delta f_\nu<1$ in the angle-integrated distribution function, at the cost of increased shot noise in the coupling to the fluid. With inelastic scattering and a better treatment of pair processes, we find a reduction in the average energy and total luminosity of heavy-lepton neutrinos, and an increase in the amount of mass ejected -- here by $50\%$, although on a relatively low amount of total ejected mass $<0.005M_\odot$. In a separate set of simulations varying the total mass of the binary away from its prompt collapse threshold, we find rapid variations in the amount of ejected matter and in the geometry and composition of the outflows with the total mass of the system. Finally, we use the simulations with our more advanced transport scheme to study in more detail the energy spectrum of neutrinos across the merger remnant.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Assessing the Relative Importance of Neutrino Matter Interaction Channels in Post-Merger Remnant of Binary Neutron Stars

Neutron star mergers are amongst the most promising sources for the joint detection of gravitational waves and electromagnetic signals. They are also potential sites for the production of r-process elements and probes of the equation of state of matter above nuclear saturation density. Neutrino-matter interactions during and after merger strongly influence the thermodynamic evolution and composition of the remnant and its outflows, thereby affecting kilonova emission and nucleosynthesis yields. However, existing merger simulations remain limited by significant approximations in the treatment of neutrino transport and interaction rates. In this work, we assess the thermodynamic conditions under which neutrinos decouple from matter and show the effect of charged-current absorption, quasi-elastic scattering on nucleons and nuclei, pair-production processes, and inelastic neutrino-electron scattering for electron neutrinos, electron antineutrinos, and heavy-lepton neutrinos in the different thermodynamical conditions sampled by a simulation using an energy-dependent Monte Carlo neutrino transport. We first estimate opacities in the post-merger remnant assuming neutrinos in equilibria with the fluid, and find results consistent with previous studies performed on simulations using a gray two-moment scheme. We note the very distinct regions in which nucleon-nucleon Bremmstrahlung and electron-positron annihilation are active (high and low density regions, respectively). We then evaluate opacities using the actual distribution function of neutrinos within a Monte Carlo simulation. We show greatly increased pair annihilation rates in cold, low-density regions, especially for heavy-lepton neutrinos. We also show that inelastic scattering on electrons, which has not been included in merger simulations so far, makes important contributions to the thermalization of heavy-lepton neutrinos.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Neutrino transport and flavor instabilities in a post-merger disk

Neutron star mergers are multimessenger sources whose dynamics and signals depend critically on neutrinos and their flavor transformations. We investigate whether fast and collisional neutrino flavor instabilities (FFIs and CFIs) arise in a GW170817-like post-merger accretion disk, and how they develop and relax, by performing global and local classical and quantum-kinetic simulations that resolve anisotropies and inhomogeneities in the full six-dimensional phase space. In the accretion disk, the neutrino radiation field naturally develops electron-lepton-number crossings through the interplay between the more isotropic electron neutrino field and the more anisotropic electron antineutrino field. The neutrino field in the disk is also unstable to CFI, although on longer timescales than the FFI. Using local, multi-energy quantum-kinetic calculations at selected points, we find that the growth of unstable modes is well-predicted by a fully anisotropic linear stability analysis and the flavor transformation increases the heavy lepton neutrino fluxes. CFI likewise enhances heavy-flavor fluxes, shows significant impacts from the growth of multi-energy anisotropic modes, and breaks the symmetry of the heavy-flavor sector by raising the average energy of heavy-flavor antineutrinos above that of heavy-flavor neutrinos. However, the CFI remains subdominant to the FFI in most of the disk. In our global quantum-kinetic simulations with an attenuated Hamiltonian, flavor coherence develops primarily in the polar regions. Because the attenuation causes advection to outpace the growth of the instabilities, coherence and flavor conversion remain artificially suppressed within the disk. These results emphasize the resolution and scaling requirements for future global simulations that capture instability growth, saturation, and advection simultaneously.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Thermalization of Neutrinos in a Neutron Star Merger Simulation

We study the neutrino distributions that arise in a simulation of a neutron star merger that uses a Monte Carlo (MC) neutrino transport scheme. In a snapshot taken 1 ms after merger, we calculate relevant observables to test when neutrinos behave like a thermalized gas, and when a free-streaming picture is more appropriate. We find that in hot, dense regions where neutrino-matter interactions are frequent, MC neutrino and antineutrino distributions are consistent with thermalized neutrinos. In moderately warm regions, where neither approximation is expected to hold, we find significant departures from the predictions of the thermalized-neutrino approximation, particularly for the (anti)neutrino average opacity and net rate of absorption per baryon, even when average energies appear approximately thermal. At lower temperatures, MC results approach the free-streaming limit. Our results demonstrate that energy-averaged agreement with thermalized-neutrino assumptions does not guarantee accurate weak interaction rates. Non-equilibrium aspects of the neutrino distribution are therefore crucial for neutrino-mediated microphysics such as composition evolution in the early post-merger phase.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Neutrino flavor instabilities in neutron star mergers with moment transport: Slow, fast, and collisional modes

Determining where, when, and how neutrino flavor oscillations must be included in large-scale simulations of hot and dense astrophysical environments is an enduring challenge that must be tackled to obtain accurate predictions. Using an angular moment-based linear stability analysis framework, we examine the different kinds of flavor instabilities that can take place in the context of the post-processing of a neutron star merger simulation, with a particular focus on the collisional flavor instability and a careful assessment of several commonly used approximations. First, neglecting anisotropies of the neutrino field, we investigate the extent to which commonly used monoenergetic growth rates reproduce the results obtained from a full multi-energy treatment. Contrary to the large discrepancies found in core-collapse supernova environments, we propose a simple combination of energy-averaged estimates that reproduces the multi-energy growth rates in our representative simulation snapshot. We then quantify the impact of additional physical effects, including nuclear many-body corrections, scattering opacities, and the inclusion of the vacuum term in the neutrino Hamiltonian. Finally, we include the neutrino distribution anisotropies, which allows us to explore, for the first time in a multi-energy setting, the interplay between collisional, fast, and slow modes in a moment-based neutron star merger simulation. We find that, despite a dominance of the fast instability in most of the simulation volume, certain regions exhibit only a collisional instability, while others, especially at large distances, exhibit a slow instability that is largely underestimated if anisotropic effects are neglected.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

Disk mass predictions for binary neutron star mergers: limitations of proposed symbolic regression models

Modeling disk formation and mass ejection in binary neutron star systems is an important component in the construction of models for the electromagnetic signals powered by these events. Most models rely on analytical formulae for the disk mass and dynamical ejecta that are fitted to the results of numerical simulations, yet these fits have large uncertainties that significantly limit our ability to extract information from merger observations. In a recent manuscript, Darc et al claim that disk mass formulae constructed using symbolic regression outperform existing formulae and robustly extend to regions of the parameter space outside of the fitting region. I show here that the improvement over the most directly comparable existing model comes mostly from the use of different error measures in optimizing the fitting parameters. For the limited training data used so far, that existing fitting formula has a performance similar to symbolic regression models when optimized over the same error measure. More importantly, I show that many of the formulae obtained through symbolic regression provide unphysical results when used over the whole range of parameters relevant to the modeling of binary neutron star mergers, making them dangerous to use within parameter estimation pipelines. I conclude that fitting formulae with more physics input (e.g. Lund et al 2025), albeit certainly imperfect, remain safer to use in data analysis than these symbolic regression results. Symbolic regression results used in conjunction with careful physics-based vetting may however outperform them in the future.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

Axisymmetric hydrodynamics in numerical relativity: treating coordinate singularity, artificial heating and modeling MHD instabilities

Two-dimensional axisymmetric simulations of binary neutron star (BNS) merger remnant are a cheap alternative to 3D simulations. To maintain realism for secular timescales, simulations must avoid accumulated errors from drifts in conserved quantities and artificial heating, and they must model turbulent transport in a way that remains plausible throughout the evolution. It is also crucial to avoid numerical artifacts due to the polar coordinate axis singularity. Methods that behave well near the axis often break flux-conservative form of the hydrodynamic equations, resulting in significant drifts in conserved quantities. We present a flux-conservative scheme that maintains smoothness near the axis without sacrificing conservative formulation of the equations or incurring drifts in conserved global quantities. We compare the numerical performance of different treatments of the hydrodynamic equations when evolving a hypermassive neutron star resembling the remnant of a BNS merger. These simulations demonstrate that the new scheme combines the axis smoothness of non-conservative methods with the mass and angular momentum conservation of other conservative methods on $\sim$ $10^2$ ms timescales of viscous and neutrino-driven evolution. Because fluid profiles remain smooth in the remnant interior, it is possible to remove artificial heating by evolving the entropy density. We show how physical heating and cooling terms can be easily calculated from source terms of the conservative evolution variables and demonstrate our implementation. Finally, we discuss and implement improvements to the effective viscosity scheme to better model the effect of magnetohydrodynamic instabilities as the remnant evolves.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

Error quantification and comparison of binary neutron star gravitational waveforms from numerical relativity codes

Future gravitational wave detections of merging binary neutron star systems have the possibility to tightly constrain the equation of state of dense nuclear matter. In order to extract such constraints, gravitational waveform models need to be calibrated to accurate numerical relativity simulations of the late inspiral and merger. In this work, we take an essential step toward classifying the error and potential systematics in current generation numerical relativity simulations of merging binary neutron stars. To this end, we perform a direct comparison of two codes (FIL, SpEC), which differ in many aspects, including the numerical methods and discretizations used and equations solved. We find that despite these different approaches, the codes are -- within current numerical resolution bounds -- fully consistent, and broadly comparable in cost for a given accuracy level. Our results indicate that the error in the waveforms is primarily dominated by the hydrodynamic evolution, consistent with earlier findings in the literature. We also discuss current limitations and cost estimates for numerical relativity simulations to reach the accuracies required in the era of next-generation gravitational wave detectors.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2025

On the difficulty of capturing the distribution function of neutrinos in neutron star merger simulations

The collision of two neutron stars is a rich source of information about nuclear physics. In particular, the kilonova signal following a merger can help us elucidate the role of neutron stars in nucleosynthesis, and informs us about the properties of matter above nuclear saturation. Approximate modeling of neutrinos remains an important limitation to our ability to make predictions for these observables. Part of the problem is the fermionic nature of neutrinos. By the exclusion principle, the expected value $f_\nu$ for the number of neutrinos in a quantum state is at most 1. Any process producing neutrinos is suppressed by a blocking factor $(1-f_\nu)$. Recent simulations focused on neutrino physics mostly use a gray two-moment scheme to evolve neutrinos. This evolves integrals of $f_\nu$ over momentum space, preventing direct calculations of blocking factors. Monte Carlo methods may be an attractive alternative, providing access to the full distribution of neutrinos. Their current implementation is however inadequate to estimate $f_\nu$: in our most recent simulations, a single Monte Carlo packet causes, in the worst cases, estimates of $f_\nu$ to jump from $f_\nu=0$ to $f_\nu\sim 10^5$. While this is concerning, this brazen violation of the fermionic nature of neutrinos has been largely inconsequential as the interactions used in simulations avoid direct calculations of $f_\nu$. We are however reaching a level of modeling at which this problem can no longer be ignored. Here, we discuss the relatively simple origin of this issue. We then show that very rough estimates of $f_\nu$ can in theory be obtained in merger simulations, but that they will require a combination of unintuitive weighting schemes for Monte Carlo packets and smoothing of the neutrino distribution at coarser resolution than what the merger simulation uses.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

The impact of binary neutron star outflow mass models on kilonova parameter estimation

The ejecta from binary neutron star mergers, which powers its associated kilonova, can inform us about source properties, merger dynamics, and the dense nuclear matter equation of state. While now in the era of multi-messenger astronomy, we remain more likely to observe purely electromagnetic (or purely gravitational-wave) signals due to the duty cycle and maximum observing distance of gravitational wave detectors. It is thus imperative to be able to perform high-accuracy parameter inference of purely electromagnetic detections. Here, we use a collection of ejecta formulae in an end-to-end analysis to generate mock multi-wavelength kilonova signals and recover the intrinsic merger parameters. By generating mock light curves for a broad range of possible mergers and with a variety of ejecta models, and then performing parameter estimation with different ejecta models, we measure how reliably and consistently we can use the 'map' between intrinsic and outflow properties provided by the formulae to gain source (intrinsic) information from purely electromagnetic detections (observables). We find that the posteriors probability densities are prone to biases when we vary the choice of reference model for our sampler, especially away from the best studied region of the binary parameter space, i.e. near equal mass, low mass binaries. This highlights both the need for improved models for the mass of the ejecta, and the need to exert caution when performing parameter estimation with a single mass model. We also find that most models predict that parameter degeneracies in kilonova light curves are largely orthogonal to those measurement observables, such as the chirp mass, from gravitational wave signals, indicating that kilonovae may provide a lot of additional information even in multi-messenger observations, if better modeled.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

Advection Algorithms for Quantum Neutrino Moment Transport

Neutrino transport in compact objects is an inherently challenging multi-dimensional problem. This difficulty is compounded if one includes flavor transformation -- an intrinsically quantum phenomenon requiring one to follow the coherence between flavors and thus necessitating the introduction of complex numbers. To reduce the computational burden, simulations of compact objects that include neutrino transport often make use of momentum-angle-integrated moments (the lowest order ones being commonly referred to as the energy density and flux) and these quantities can be generalized to include neutrino flavor, i.e., they become quantum moments. Numerous finite-volume approaches to solving the moment evolution equations for classical neutrino transport have been developed based on solving a Riemann problem at cell interfaces. In this paper we describe our generalization of a Riemann solver for quantum moments, specifically decomposing complex numbers in terms of a (signed) magnitude and phase instead of real and imaginary parts. We then test our new algorithm in numerous cases showing a neutrino fast flavor instability, varying from toy models with analytic solutions to snapshots from neutron star merger simulations. Compared to previous algorithms for neutrino transport with flavor mixing, we find uniformly smaller growth rates of the flavor transformation along with concomitantly larger length-scales, and that the results are a better match with the growth rates seen from multi-angle codes.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2024

A Unified Model of Kilonovae and GRBs in Binary Mergers Establishes Neutron Stars as the Central Engines of Short GRBs

We expand the theoretical framework by Gottlieb el al. (2023), which connects binary merger populations with long and short binary gamma-ray bursts (lbGRBs and sbGRBs), incorporating kilonovae as a key diagnostic tool. We show that lbGRBs, powered by massive accretion disks around black holes (BHs), should be accompanied by bright, red kilonovae. In contrast, sbGRBs - if also powered by BHs - would produce fainter, red kilonovae, potentially biasing against their detection. However, magnetized hypermassive neutron star (HMNS) remnants that precede BH formation can produce jets with power ($P_{\rm NS} \approx 10^{51}\,{\rm erg\,s^{-1}}$) and Lorentz factor ($\Gamma>10$), likely compatible with sbGRB observations, and would result in distinctly bluer kilonovae, offering a pathway to identifying the sbGRB central engine. Recent modeling by Rastinejad et al. (2024) found luminous red kilonovae consistently accompany lbGRBs, supporting lbGRB originating from BH-massive disk systems, likely following a short-lived HMNS phase. The preferential association of sbGRBs with comparably luminous kilonovae argues against the BH engine hypothesis for sbGRBs, while the bluer hue of these KNe provides additional support for an HMNS-driven mechanism. Within this framework, BH-NS mergers likely contribute exclusively to the lbGRB population with red kilonovae. Our findings suggest that GW170817 may, in fact, have been an lbGRB to on-axis observers. Finally, we discuss major challenges faced by alternative lbGRB progenitor models, such as white dwarf-NS or white dwarf-BH mergers and accretion-induced collapse forming magnetars, which fail to align with observed GRB timescales, energies, and kilonova properties.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2024

Influence of neutrino-electron scattering and neutrino-pair annihilation on hypermassive neutron star

We investigate the influence of inelastic neutrino microphysics in general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of a hypermassive neutron star. In particular, we include species/energy groups coupled neutrino-matter interactions, such as inelastic neutrino-electron scattering and electron-positron annihilation kernels, into simulations up to 50 ms. Neutrino-electron inelastic scattering is known to have effective neutrino-matter energy exchange. We show that, with neutrino-electron inelastic scattering, simulations predict 75% higher disc mass with slightly different mass-averaged compositions, and 18% more ejected mass with similar distributions. The enhancement of the mass of the disc and the ejecta results in stronger baryon pollution, leading to less favourable jet launching environments. Furthermore, neutrino luminosities are about 50, 40, and 30% higher for electron neutrino, electron anti-neutrino, and heavy-lepton neutrinos. In contrast, we do not see any significant impacts due to electron-positron annihilation.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2024

Neutrinos in colliding neutron stars and black holes

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the physics of colliding black holes and neutron stars and of the impact of neutrinos on these systems. Observations of colliding neutron stars play an important role in nuclear astrophysics today. They allow us to study the properties of cold nuclear matter and the origin of many heavy elements (gold, platinum, uranium). We show that neutrinos significantly impact the observable signals powered by these events as well as the outcome of nucleosynthesis in the matter that they eject into the surrounding intergalactic medium.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2024

Magnetically-Driven Neutron-Rich Ejecta Unleashed: Global 3D Neutrino-General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Collapsars Probe the Conditions for r-process Nucleosynthesis

Collapsars - rapidly rotating stellar cores that form black holes - can power gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and are proposed to be key contributors to the production of heavy elements in the Universe via the rapid neutron capture process ($r$-process). Previous neutrino-transport collapsar simulations have been unable to unbind neutron-rich material from the disk. However, these simulations have not included sufficiently strong magnetic fields and the black hole (BH), both of which are essential for launching mass outflows. We present $nu$H-AMR, a novel neutrino-transport general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic ($\nu$GRMHD) code, which we use to perform the first 3D global $\nu$GRMHD collapsar simulations. We find a self-consistent formation of a weakly magnetized dense accretion disk, which has sufficient time to neutronize. Eventually, substantial magnetic flux accumulates near the BH, becomes dynamically important, leads to a magnetically arrested disk (MAD), and unbinds some of the neutron-rich material. However, the strong flux also hinders accretion, lowers density, and increases neutrino cooling timescale, which prevents further disk neutronization. Typical collapsar progenitors with mass accretion rates, $\dot{M} \sim 0.1-1 M_\odot/\rm{s}$, do not produce significant neutron-rich ($Y_\text{e} < 0.25$) ejecta. However, we find that MADs at higher mass accretion rates, $\dot{M} \gtrsim \text{few}\, M_\odot/\rm{s}$ (e.g., for more centrally concentrated progenitors), can unbind $M_\text{ej}\lesssim{}M_\odot$ of neutron-rich ejecta. The outflows inflate a shocked cocoon that mixes with the infalling neutron-poor stellar gas and raises the final outflow $Y_\text{e}$; however, the final $r$-process yield may be determined earlier at the point of neutron capture freeze-out. Future work will explore under what conditions more typical collapsar engines become $r$-process factories.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2024

Quantum Closures for Neutrino Moment Transport

A computationally efficient method for calculating the transport of neutrino flavor in simulations is to use angular moments of the neutrino one-body reduced density matrix, i.e., `quantum moments'. As with any moment-based radiation transport method, a closure is needed if the infinite tower of moment evolution equations is truncated. We derive a general parameterization of a quantum closure and the limits the parameters must satisfy in order for the closure to be physical. We then derive from multi-angle calculations the evolution of the closure parameters in two test cases which we then progressively insert into a moment evolution code and show how the parameters affect the moment results until the full multi-angle results are reproduced. This parameterization paves the way to setting prescriptions for genuine quantum closures adapted to neutrino transport in a range of situations.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2024

Robustness of neutron star merger simulations to changes in neutrino transport and neutrino-matter interactions

Binary neutron star mergers play an important role in nuclear astrophysics: their gravitational wave and electromagnetic signals carry information about the equation of state of cold matter above nuclear saturation density, and they may be one of the main sources of r-process elements in the Universe. Neutrino-matter interactions during and after merger impact the properties of these electromagnetic signals, and the relative abundances of the produced r-process elements. Existing merger simulations are however limited in their ability to realistically model neutrino transport and neutrino-matter interactions. Here, we perform a comparison of the impact of the use of state-of-the art two-moment or Monte-Carlo transport schemes on the outcome of merger simulations, for a single binary neutron star system with a short-lived neutron star remnant ($(5-10)\,{\rm ms}$). We also investigate the use of different reaction rates in the simulations. While the best transport schemes generally agree well on the qualitative impact of neutrinos on the system, differences in the behavior of the high-density regions can significantly impact the collapse time and the properties of the hot tidal arms in this metastable merger remnant. The chosen interaction rates, transport algorithm, as well as recent improvements by Radice et al to the two-moment algorithms can all contribute to changes at the $(10-30)\%$ level in the global properties of the merger remnant and outflows. The limitations of previous moment schemes fixed by Radice et al also appear sufficient to explain the large difference that we observed in the production of heavy-lepton neutrinos in a previous comparison of Monte-Carlo and moment schemes in the context of a low mass binary neutron star system.

astro-ph.HE↗