Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0601142

From: Charles Dermer [view email]

Date (v1): Fri, 6 Jan 2006 23:00:27 GMT (11kb)
Date (revised v2): Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:20:48 GMT (11kb)
Date (revised v3): Thu, 6 Apr 2006 22:42:12 GMT (11kb)

Collapse of Neutron Stars to Black Holes in Binary Systems: A Model for Short Gamma Ray Bursts

Authors: Charles D. Dermer (1), Armen Atoyan (2) ((1) NRL, (2) University of Montreal)

Comments: 4 pages, ApJ Letters, in press

The accretion of ~ 0.1 -- 1 M_o of material by a neutron star through Roche lobe overflow of its companion or through white-dwarf/neutron-star coalescence in a low mass binary system could be enough to exceed the critical mass of a neutron star and trigger its collapse to a black hole, leading to the production of a short gamma-ray burst (SGRB). In this model, SGRBs would often be found in early-type galaxies or in globular cluster environments, though they could also be formed through stellar-wind accretion in high-mass binary systems of star-forming galaxies. Although the collapse event is likely to be of short (<< 1 s) duration, afterglow complexity could be produced by neutron decoupling in the fireball and subsequent accretion of the companion remnant, for example, the disrupted white-dwarf core.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601142