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Fernandez, JJ, Kobayashi, S and Lamb, GP (2021) Lateral spreading effects on VLBI radio images of neutron star merger jets. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 509 (1). pp. 395-405. ISSN 0035-8711
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Lateral spreading effects on VLBI radio images of neutron star merger jets.pdf - Published Version Download (3MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Very long baseline interferometry radio images recently proved to be essential in breaking the degeneracy in the ejecta model for the neutron star merger GW170817. We discuss the properties of synthetic radio images of merger jet afterglows by using semi-analytical models of laterally spreading or non-spreading jets. The image centroid initially moves away from the explosion point in the sky with apparent superluminal velocity. After reaching a maximum displacement, its motion is reversed. This behaviour is in line with that found in full hydrodynamic simulations. We show that the evolution of the centroid shift and the image size are significantly different when lateral spreading is considered. For Gaussian jet models with plausible model parameters, the morphology of the laterally spreading jet images is much closer to circular. The maximum displacement of the centroid shift and its occurrence time are smaller/earlier by a factor of a few for spreading jets. Our results indicate that it is crucial to include lateral spreading effects when analysing radio images of neutron star merger jets. We also obtain the viewing angle θobs by using the centroid shift of radio images provided the ratio of the jet core size θc and θobs is determined by afterglow light curves. We show that a simple method based on a point-source approximation provides reasonable angular estimates (10−20 per cent errors at most). By taking a sample of laterally spreading structured Gaussian jets, we obtain θobs ∼ 0.32 for GW170817, consistent with previous studies.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics |
| Divisions: | Astrophysics Research Institute |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Dec 2021 12:48 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Dec 2021 13:00 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1093/mnras/stab2879 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/15858 |
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