Anisotropic mass ejection from black hole-neutron star binaries: Diversity of electromagnetic counterparts

Koutarou Kyutoku, Kunihito Ioka, Masaru Shibata

Published 2013-05-27, updated 2013-08-23Version 2

The merger of black hole-neutron star binaries can eject substantial material with the mass ~0.01-0.1M_sun when the neutron star is disrupted prior to the merger. The ejecta shows significant anisotropy, and travels in a particular direction with the bulk velocity ~0.2c. This is drastically different from the binary neutron star merger, for which ejecta is nearly isotropic. Anisotropic ejecta brings electromagnetic-counterpart diversity which is unique to black hole-neutron star binaries, such as viewing-angle dependence, polarization, and proper motion. The kick velocity of the black hole, gravitational-wave memory emission, and cosmic-ray acceleration are also discussed.