Possible role of magnetic reconnection in the electromagnetic counterpart of binary black hole merger

F. Fraschetti

Published 2016-03-07Version 1

We propose a qualitative scenario to interpret the argued association between the recent direct measurement of the gravitational wave event GW150914 by LIGO-Virgo collaborations and the hard $X$-ray transient detected by Fermi-GBM $0.4$ sec after. In a binary system of two gravitationally collapsing objects with a non-vanishing electric charge, the compenetration of the two magnetospheres occurring during the coalescence, through turbulent magnetic reconnection, produces a highly collimated relativistic outflow that becomes optically thin and shines in the GBM field of view. We propose that this process should be expected as a commonplace in the future joint gravitational/electromagnetic detections.