Constraints on the formation of double neutron stars from the observed eccentricities and current limits on merger rates [SSA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1611.05366


We employ population synthesis method to model the double neutron star (DNS) population and test various possibilities on natal kick velocities gained by neutron stars after their formation. We first choose natal kicks after standard core collapse SN from a Maxwellian distribution with velocity dispersion of sigma=265 km/s as proposed by Hobbs et al. (2005) and then modify this distribution by changing the velocity dispersion towards smaller and larger kick values. We also take into account the possibility of NS formation through electron capture supernova. In this case we test two scenarios: zero natal kick or small natal kick, drawn from Maxwellian distribution with sigma = 26.5 km/s. We calculate the present-day orbital parameters of binaries and compare the resulting eccentricities with those known for observed DNSs. As an additional test we calculate Galactic merger rates for our model populations and confront them with observational limits. We do not find any model unequivocally consistent with both observational constraints simultaneously.The models with low kicks after CCSN for binaries with the second NS forming through core collapse SN are marginally consistent with the observations. This means that either 14 observed DNSs are not representative of the intrinsic Galactic population, or that our modeling of DNS formation needs revision.

Read this paper on arXiv…

M. Chruslinska, K. Belczynski, T. Bulik, et. al.
Thu, 17 Nov 16
10/57

Comments: 14 pages, 1 figure