Neutrino Trapping and Out-of-Equilibrium Effects in Binary Neutron-Star Merger Remnants

Pedro Luis Espino, Peter Hammond, David Radice, Sebastiano Bernuzzi, Rossella Gamba, Francesco Zappa, Luis Felipe Longo Micchi, Albino Perego.
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Abstract

We study out-of-thermodynamic equilibrium effects in neutron star mergers with 3D general-relativistic neutrino-radiation large-eddy simulations. During merger, the cores of the neutron stars remain cold (T \sim a few MeV) and out of thermodynamic equilibrium with trapped neutrinos originating from the hot collisional interface between the stars. However, within {\sim}2{-}3 milliseconds matter and neutrinos reach equilibrium everywhere in the remnant. Our results show that dissipative effects, such as bulk viscosity, if present, are only active for a short window of time after the merger.

Associated Fellows