hide
Free keywords:
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc, Astrophysics, High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, astro-ph.HE
Abstract:
Over the last few years, there has been an increasing interest in sub-solar
mass black holes due to their potential to provide valuable information about
cosmology or the black hole population. Motivated by this, we study observable
phenomena connected to the merger of a sub-solar mass black hole with a neutron
star. For this purpose, we perform new numerical-relativity simulations of a
binary system composed of a black hole with mass $0.5M_\odot$ and a neutron
star with mass $1.4 M_\odot$. We investigate the merger dynamics of this exotic
system and provide information about the connected gravitational-wave and
kilonova signals. Our study indicates that current gravitational-waveform
models are unable to adequately describe such systems and that phenomenological
relations connecting the binary parameters with the ejecta and remnant
properties are not applicable to our system. Furthermore, we find a dependence
of the kilonova signal on the azimuthal viewing angle due to the asymmetric
mass ejection. This first-of-its-kind simulation opens the door for the study
of sub-solar mass black hole - neutron star mergers and could serve as a
testing ground for future model development.
