Mergers of Magnetized Neutron Stars with Spinning Black Holes: Disruption, Accretion and Fallback

Abstract

We investigate the merger of a neutron star (of compaction ratio $0.1$) in orbit about a spinning black hole in full general relativity with a mass ratio of $5:1$, allowing for the star to have an initial magnetization of $10^{12} {\rm Gauss}$. We present the resulting gravitational waveform and analyze the fallback accretion as the star is disrupted. The evolutions suggest no significant effects from the initial magnetization. We find that only a negligible amount of matter becomes unbound; $99%$ of the neutron star material has a fallback time of 10 seconds or shorter to reach the region of the central engine and that $99.99%$ of the star will interact with the central disk and black hole within 3 hours.

Version updated to match published version (Phys Rev Letters V105, 111101; 2010.) 5 pages, 5 figures