arXiv subjects

Kenta Kiuchi

Publications and source records attributed to Kenta Kiuchi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A first-principles binary neutron star merger model of GW170817, GRB170817A, and AT2017gfo

The multimessenger observation of the binary neutron star merger event GW170817, associated with its electromagnetic counterparts GRB170817A and AT2017gfo, marked a milestone in astrophysics, yet its unified physical explanation remains elusive. We conduct an end-to-end simulation based on a first-principles general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics neutrino-radiation transfer merger simulation, followed by nucleosynthesis calculations and photon radiative transfer to generate kilonova light curves. We show that the large-scale dynamo simultaneously produces a relativistic jet with an isotropic-equivalent luminosity of $\sim 10^{51}~{\rm erg~s^{-1}}$ and $\approx 0.08M_\odot$ of neutron-rich ejecta, reproducing the GRB170817A afterglow and the AT2017gfo kilonova light curves. Our results establish a unified first-principles framework for interpreting binary neutron star mergers across gravitational wave, gamma-ray burst, and kilonova observations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Extending the infrastructure of the BAM code towards resistive general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics: tests and first applications

Many astrophysical phenomena, including pulsars and short gamma-ray bursts, are associated with the extremely strong magnetic fields present in neutron stars and neutron star mergers. While the ideal magnetohydrodynamic approximation, which assumes infinite conductivity, provides an excellent description of the neutron-star interior, it cannot capture non-ideal processes such as Ohmic dissipation and magnetic reconnection. To overcome this limitation, we present an extension of the numerical-relativity code BAM incorporating a resistive general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) description. We validate the new implementation through an extensive suite of special-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic benchmark tests and by performing stable simulations of isolated and binary neutron star systems. For the latter, we investigate the impact of finite conductivity on magnetic-field amplification, mass ejection, and non-ideal GRMHD effects. In particular, we find that the component of the electric field parallel to the magnetic field, which is zero in the ideal case, can reach up to 10% of the total electric field strength. This highlights the potential importance of non-ideal effects for accurately modeling the long-term evolution of post-merger remnants, particularly in low-density regions. Although the present study is restricted to simplified piecewise-polytropic equations of state, it demonstrates the capabilities of the new resistive GRMHD framework and paves the way for future investigations employing more realistic microphysics.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

SACRA-K: A Performance-Portable Numerical Relativity Code with Kokkos

We present SACRA-K (SimulAtor for Compact objects in Relativistic Astrophysics with Kokkos), a performance-portable numerical relativity code ported from the Fortran code SACRA-MPI to C++ with the Kokkos library. SACRA-K retains the physics and numerical methods of SACRA-MPI, namely a Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura (BSSN) spacetime evolution with Z4c constraint propagation and a box-in-box Berger-Oliger adaptive mesh refinement, together with the high resolution shock capturing scheme for the general relativistic hydrodynamics from NANASI, while gaining cross vendor portability. We validate the port against SACRA-MPI across binary black hole, black hole neutron star, and binary neutron star configurations. Across these tests, the waveform discrepancies are well below both the scatter among independent numerical relativity codes and the resolution dependent variation within a given code, and remain at or below the distinguishability threshold of current gravitational-wave detectors; the $\pi$ symmetry is preserved exactly at the bitwise level; and the gravitational wave phase of the binary neutron star merger exhibits second order convergence. In the smallest test configuration, SACRA-K runs about an order of magnitude faster on the NVIDIA A100 GPU cluster or the AMD MI300A APU cluster than the Fortran SACRA-MPI on the CPU cluster, and we measure its scaling up to 256 accelerator devices.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Subsolar-mass binary mergers of strange stars and neutron stars: gravitational waves and ejecta

We present the first numerical-relativity simulations of subsolar-mass binary strange star (SS) mergers and compare with binary neutron star (NS) mergers across equations of state, masses, and mass ratios. The self-bound nature of SSs makes them less deformed during the inspiral and keeps a sharp surface up to contact, driving strong shock heating and a large radial bounce that are far weaker in the NS. The more compact SS thus reaches a higher gravitational-wave cutoff frequency $f_\mathrm{cut}$ before contact but a lower post-merger peak frequency $f_2$. Within each class these frequencies follow quasi-universal relations with the tidal deformability, and their ratio $f_2/f_\mathrm{cut}$ cleanly separates the two classes. Both classes can eject $\sim10^{-2}\,M_\odot$ of material, neutron-rich for the NS and decompressed quark matter for the SS, a potential source of an electromagnetic counterpart whose observation could test the SS and NS hypotheses for subsolar-mass events.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Implementation of multi-grid Poisson solver in numerical relativity and its application to gravitational collapse of massive star

We develop a new grid-based multi-grid Poisson solver in numerical relativity. We report the performance of the multi-grid Poisson solver in the initial value problems for two-puncture black holes, a static spherical neutron star, a uniformly rotating neutron star in equilibrium, and a gravitationally collapsing massive star. As a demonstration, we conduct a numerical-relativity neutrino-radiation-transfer hydrodynamics simulation of the gravitational collapse of the $9M_\odot$ massive star in Ref.~\cite{Aguilera-Dena:2020mfh} up to the core bounce. During the simulation, we employ the constraint-preserving regird prescription with the newly developed multi-grid Poisson solver to improve the resolution. It shows that the baryonic mass, the Arnowit-Deser-Misner (ADM) mass, and the ADM-like angular momentum are, respectively, preserved with $O(10^{-3})\%$ and $O(10^{-2})$--$O(10^{-1})$\% accuracy.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

A magnetar formation in binary neutron star merger

We conduct a global general relativistic neutrino-radiation-transfer magnetohydrodynamics simulation of a $1.35$-$1.35M_\odot$ binary neutron star with the unprecedented spatial resolution of $6.25$\,m on the Japanese supercomputer FUGAKU. The total consumed CPU time is $\approx 530$ million core hours. We initialize the binary neutron star's magnetic field to be $3.16\times 10^{12}$~G at maximum, which is compatible with the upper end of the observed binary pulsars. We demonstrate that the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability that emerges when the two neutron stars touch amplifies the magnetic field to an expected electromagnetic saturation energy of $\sim 10^{50}$~erg within $3$~ms after the merger. The spectral analysis indicates that the Kazantsev and Kolmogorov spectra are reproduced in the magnetic and kinetic power spectral densities, respectively. We also find that it induces stellar-scale magnetic field amplification by at least a factor of $316$. We conclude that a magnetar may form at least temporarily following neutron star mergers in a few ms.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Towards high-precision inspiral gravitational waveforms from binary neutron star mergers in numerical relativity

We report the performance of a newly implemented fourth-order accurate finite-volume HLLC Riemann solver in the adaptive-mesh-refinement numerical relativity code {\tt SACRA-MPI}. First, we validate our implementation in one-dimensional special relativistic hydrodynamics tests, i.e., a simple wave and shock tube test, which have analytic solutions. We demonstrate that the fourth-order convergence is achieved for the smooth flow, which cannot be achieved in our original second-order accurate finite-volume Riemann solver. We also show that our new solver is robust for the strong shock wave emergence problem. Second, we validate the implementation in a dynamical spacetime by demonstrating that {\tt SACRA-MPI} perfectly preserves the $\pi$-symmetry without imposing the $\pi$-symmetry in a short-term ($\sim 20~{\rm ms}$ in the inspiral and subsequent post-merger phase) non-spinning equal-mass binary neutron star merger simulations. Finally, we quantify the accuracy of $\approx 28$ cycles inspiral gravitational waveforms from binary neutron star mergers by conducting a resolution study with $\approx 78, 94$, $118$, and $135$ m. We find that the fourth-order accurate Riemann solver achieves the convergence order $\approx 2.1\pm{0.05}$--$2.4\pm{0.27}$, i.e., slightly evolving with time, in the inspiral gravitational wave phase, while the second-order accurate Riemann solver achieves the convergence order $\approx 2.0\pm{0.5}$. The residual phase error towards the continuum limit at the merger is $0.27\pm 0.07$ rad and $0.58\pm 0.22$ rad out of a total phase of $\approx 176$ rad, respectively, for the fourth- and second-order accurate Riemann solver.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

The error budget of binary neutron star merger simulations for configurations with high spin

Numerical-relativity simulations offer a unique approach to investigating the dynamics of binary neutron star mergers and provide the most accurate predictions of waveforms in the late inspiral phase. However, the numerical predictions are prone to systematic biases originating from the construction of initial quasi-circular binary configurations, the numerical methods used to evolve them, and to extract gravitational signals. To assess uncertainties arising from these aspects, we analyze mergers of highly spinning neutron stars with dimensionless spin parameter $\chi=0.5$. The initial data are prepared by two solvers, \textsc{FUKA} and \textsc{SGRID}, which are then evolved by two independent codes, \textsc{SACRA} and \textsc{BAM}. We assess the impact of numerical discretizations, finite extraction radii, and differences in numerical frameworks on the resulting gravitational waveforms. Our analysis reveals that the primary source of uncertainty in numerical waveforms is the evolution code, while the initial data solver has a smaller impact. We also compare our numerical-relativity waveforms with state-of-the-art analytical models, finding that the discrepancies between them exceed the estimated numerical uncertainties. Few suggestions are offered: (i) the analytic waveform becomes an inadequate approximation after the two neutron stars come into contact and the binary enters the essentially-one-body phase, (ii) the analytical models may not capture finite-size effects beyond quadrupole moment, and (iii) the inconsistent use of the binary black hole baseline in the analytical models may also be contributing to these discrepancies. The presented results benchmark the error budget for numerical waveforms of binary neutron star mergers, and provide information for the analytic models to explore further the high spin parameter space of binary neutron star mergers.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Dependence of postmerger properties on the thermal heating efficiency in neutron star mergers

We systematically perform numerical-relativity simulations for equal-mass binary neutron star mergers for the models varying the thermal index $\Gamma_{\rm th}$ with three different equations of state (EOSs) of the neutron stars (NSs), which are consistent with current multimessenger observational data and state-of-the-art theoretical calculations, and two different binary total mass ($m_0=2.7\ \text{and}\ 2.9~M_\odot$). By varying the value of $\Gamma_{\rm th}$ within the hybrid EOS framework, we investigate the thermal effects on the merger dynamics, gravitational waves (GWs), and the dynamical mass ejection process. We find that the choice of the constant $\Gamma_{\rm th}$ can change the outcome of the remnant for specific EOSs and $m_0$. We also show that the dynamical ejecta mass is affected by the $\Gamma_{\rm th}$ value in a different way for different EOSs: for a stiff EOS the ejecta mass is high when $\Gamma_{\rm th}$ is small, while for softer EOSs the largest ejecta is achieved when $\Gamma_{\rm th} = 1.3$--$1.4$. While the inspiral motion does not depend on the $\Gamma_{\rm th}$ value, the postmerger phase evolution is highly affected by that. We show that the dominant peak frequency $f_2$ of the postmerger GW spectrum monotonically decreases as the $\Gamma_{\rm th}$ increases. We find that the universal relations between NS macroscopic properties and postmerger GW frequencies are subject to non-negligible thermal uncertainties, which can obscure the universal relation between the tidal deformability and $f_2$.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Convective stability analysis of massive neutron stars formed in binary mergers

We perform fully general-relativistic hydrodynamics simulations of binary neutron star mergers over $100\,\rm ms$ post-merger to investigate the dynamics of remnant massive neutron stars (NSs). Our focus is mainly on the analysis of convective stability and mode characteristics of the massive NSs. We derive stability criteria for hot, differentially rotating relativistic stars that account for both buoyant and rotational restoring forces, and apply them for the first time to the post-merger massive NSs. Our results show no evidence of large-scale convective instability, as both angle-averaged specific entropy and specific angular momentum increase outward within the massive NSs. Rotational effects significantly enhance stability for local regions that would be otherwise unstable by the Schwarzschild criterion. Additionally, our mode analysis of matter fields and gravitational waves reveals no excitation of observable inertial modes after the damping of quadrupolar $f$-modes in the massive NSs, contrasting with previous studies. As in many previous works, we observe the excitation of an $m=1$ one-armed mode. However, we also find that the growth of the $m=1$ mode amplitude after the merger may correlate strongly with the violation of linear momentum conservation, indicating that we cannot reject the possibility that the excitation of the one-armed mode has a numerical origin.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

MRI-driven $\alpha\Omega$ dynamo at high Pm numbers

To power gamma-ray bursts and other high-energy events, large-scale magnetic fields are required to extract rotational energy from compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars. The magnetorotational instability (MRI) is a key mechanism for angular momentum transport and large-scale magnetic field amplification. Recent work has begun to address the regime of high magnetic Prandtl number $\mathrm{Pm}$, the ratio of viscosity to resistivity, in which angular momentum and magnetic energy increase with $\mathrm{Pm}$. This regime reveals unique dynamics of small-scale turbulence in disk mid-planes and buoyancy instabilities in the atmosphere. This study aims to build on these findings, focusing on the MRI-driven $\alpha\Omega$ dynamo in stratified simulations to understand magnetic field generation in the high-$\mathrm{Pm}$ regime. We analyze data taken from stratified shearing box simulations both in the regime of magnetic Prandtl number of order unity, and also in the high $\mathrm{Pm}$ regime employing new techniques to compute the dynamo coefficients. We find that the mean-magnetic field evolution can be described by an $\alpha\Omega$ dynamo, even in the high-Pm regime. The mean magnetic field as well as the dynamo coefficients increase with Pm. This leads to a shorter dynamo period and a faster growth rate. We also find that the off-diagonal coefficients have an impact on the propagation of the magnetic field in the dynamo region. Overall, the magnetic field amplification found in global simulations should be increased by at least a factor of $\sim 5$, which could lead to more powerful jets and stronger winds from astrophysical disks in the high-Pm regime.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Tayler-Spruit dynamo in binary neutron star merger remnants

In binary neutron star mergers, the remnant can be stabilized by differential rotation before it collapses into a black hole. Therefore, the angular momentum transport mechanisms are crucial for predicting the lifetime of the hypermassive neutron star. One such mechanism is the Tayler-Spruit dynamo, and recent simulations have shown that it could grow in proto-neutron stars formed during supernova explosions. We aim to investigate whether hypermassive neutron stars with high neutrino viscosity could be unstable to the Tayler-Spruit dynamo and study how magnetic fields would evolve in this context. Using a one-zone model based on the result of a 3D GRMHD simulation, we investigate the time evolution of the magnetic fields generated by the Tayler-Spruit dynamo. In addition, we analyze the dynamics of the 3D GRMHD simulation to determine whether the dynamo is present. Our one-zone model predicts that the Tayler-Spruit dynamo can increase the toroidal magnetic field to $ \ge 10^{17}$ G and the dipole field to amplitudes $\ge 10^{16}$ G. The dynamo's growth timescale depends on the initial large-scale magnetic field right after the merger. In the case of a long-lived hypermassive neutron star, an initial magnetic field of $\ge 10^{12}$ G would be enough for the magnetic field to be amplified in a few seconds. However, we show that the resolution of the current GRMHD simulations is insufficient to resolve the Tayler-Spruit dynamo due to high numerical dissipation at small scales. We find that the Tayler-Spruit dynamo could occur in hypermassive neutron stars and shorten their lifetime, which would have consequences on multi-messenger observations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Tidal Resonance in Binary Neutron Star Inspirals: A High-Precision Study in Numerical Relativity

We investigate the tidal resonance of the fundamental ($f$-)mode in spinning neutron stars, robustly tracing the onset of the excitation to its saturation, using numerical relativity for the first time. We performed long-term ($\approx15$~orbits) fully relativistic simulations of a merger of two highly and retrogradely spinning neutron stars. The resonance window of the $f$-mode is extended by self-interaction, and the nonlinear resonance continues up to the final plunging phase. We observe that the quasi-circular orbit is maintained throughout since the dissipation of orbit motion due to the resonance is coherent with that due to gravitational waves. The $f$-mode resonance causes a variation in the stellar spin of $\gtrsim6.3\%$ in the linear regime and much more as $\sim33\%$ during the later nonlinear regime. At the merger, a phase shift of $\lesssim40$~radians is rendered in the gravitational waveform as a consequence of the angular momentum and energy transfers into the neutron star oscillations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Jet from binary neutron star merger with prompt black hole formation

We performed the longest numerical-relativity neutrino-radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulation for a binary neutron star merger that extends to $\approx1.5\mathrm{\,s}$ after the merger. We consider the binary model that undergoes the prompt collapse to a black hole after the merger with asymmetric mass 1.25$\,M_{\odot}$ and 1.65$\,M_{\odot}$ and SFHo equation of state. We find the Poynting flux-driven collimated outflow as well as the gravitational wave emission, neutrino emission, dynamical mass ejection, and post-merger mass ejection facilitated by magnetorotational instability-driven turbulent viscosity in a single self-consistent binary neutron star merger simulation. A magnetosphere dominated by the aligned global magnetic field penetrating the black hole develops along the black-hole spin axis after the turbulence in the remnant disk is enhanced. A jet with the Poynting flux with isotropic-equivalent luminosity of $\sim10^{49}\mathrm{\,erg/s}$ is launched, and the duration of the high luminosity is expected to be $O(1)\mathrm{\,s}$.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Accessing universal relations of binary neutron star waveforms in massive scalar-tensor theory

We investigate how the quasi-universal relations connecting tidal deformability with gravitational waveform characteristics and/or properties of individual neutron stars that were proposed in the literature within general relativity would be influenced in the massive Damour-Esposito-Farese-type scalar-tensor gravity. For this purpose, we systematically perform numerical relativity simulations of ~120 binary neutron star mergers with varying scalar coupling constants. Although only three neutron-star equations of state are adopted, a clear breach of universality can be observed in the data sets. In addition to presenting difficulties in constructing quasi-universal relations in alternative gravity theories, we also briefly compare the impacts of non-general-relativity physics on the waveform features and those due to the first order or cross-over quantum chromodynamical phase transition.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

General Relativistic Magneto-Hydrodynamic Simulations with BAM: Implementation and Code Comparison

Binary neutron star mergers are among the most energetic events in our Universe, with magnetic fields significantly impacting their dynamics, particularly after the merger. While numerical-relativity simulations that correctly describe the physics are essential to model their rich phenomenology, the inclusion of magnetic fields is crucial for realistic simulations. For this reason, we have extended the BAM code to enable general relativistic magneto-hydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations employing a hyperbolic `divergence cleaning' scheme. We present a large set of standard GRMHD tests and compare the BAM code to other GRMHD codes, SPRITZ, GRaM-X, and SACRA$_{\rm KK22}$, which employ different schemes for the evolution of the magnetic fields. Overall, we find that the BAM code shows a good performance in simple special-relativistic tests. In addition, we find good agreement and consistent results when comparing GRMHD simulation results between BAM and SACRA$_{\rm KK22}$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Simulating short GRB jets in late binary neutron star merger environments

The electromagnetic emission and the afterglow observations of the binary neutron star merger event GW 170817A confirmed the association of the merger with a short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) harboring a narrow ($5${\deg}-$10${\deg}) and powerful ($10^{49}$-$10^{50}~$erg) jet. Using the 1~second-long neutrino-radiation-GR-MHD simulation of coalescing neutron stars of Kiuchi et al. (2023) and following the semi-analytical estimates of Pais et al. (2023), we inject a narrow, powerful, unmagnetized jet into the post-merger phase. We explore different opening angles, luminosities, central engine durations, and times after the merger. We explore early ($0.1~$s following the merger) and late ($1~$s) jet launches; the latter is consistent with the time delay of $\approx 1.74~$s observed between GW 170817 and GRB 170817A. We demonstrate that the semi-analytical estimates correctly predict the jets' breakout and collimation conditions. When comparing our synthetic afterglow light curves to the observed radio data of GW170807, we find a good agreement for a $3 \times 10^{49}$ ergs jet launched late with an opening angle in the range $\simeq 5${\deg}-$7${\deg}.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Constraints of the maximum mass of quark stars based on post-merger evolutions

We semi-analytically investigate the post-merger evolution of the binary quark star merger. The effective-one-body method is employed to estimate the energy and angular momentum dissipation due to gravitational waves in the inspiral phase. Three major mechanisms of energy and angular momentum dissipation are considered in the post-merger phase: mass outflows, neutrinos, and gravitational waves. The proportion of each mechanism could be determined by baryon number, energy and angular momentum conservation laws as well as the equilibrium model for rotating quark stars. Applying this analysis to the GW170817 event suggests two important conclusions: 1) a remnant quark star whose mass is smaller than the maximum mass of a uniformly rotating quark star can collapse before its rotational energy is dissipated via electromagnetic radiation (i.e., $\sim 100\,\mathrm{s}$) as the angular momentum left in the remnant quark star might not be large enough to sustain the additional self-gravity of the supramassive quark star due to the angular momentum dissipation of mass outflows, neutrinos and gravitational waves; 2) considering a general quark star equation of state model, a constraint on the maximum mass of cold and non-rotating quark stars is found as $M_{\mathrm{TOV}}\lesssim2.35^{+0.07}_{-0.17}\,M_{\odot}$, assuming a delayed collapse occurred before a large fraction of the total rotational energy ($\color{blue} \gtrsim 10^{53}\,$erg) of the merger remnant was deposited into the merger environment for the GW170817 event. These constraints could be improved with future merger events, once there are more evidences on its post-merger evolution channel or information on the amount of post-merger gravitational wave and neutrino emissions inferred from the multi-messenger observations.

astro-ph.HE↗