Long-duration Gamma-Ray Burst and Associated Kilonova Emission from Fast-spinning Black Hole–Neutron Star Mergers

Abstract

Abstract Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been phenomenologically divided into long- and short-duration populations, generally corresponding to collapsar and compact merger origins, respectively. Here, we collect three unique bursts, GRBs 060614, 211211A, and 211227A, all of which are characterized by a long-duration main emission (ME) phase and a rebrightening extended emission (EE) phase, to study their observed properties and their potential origins as neutron star–black hole (NSBH) mergers. NS-first-born (BH-first-born) NSBH mergers tend to contain fast-spinning (nonspinning) BHs that more easily (hardly) allow tidal disruption to occur, while (without) forming electromagnetic signals. We find that NS-first-born NSBH mergers can well interpret the origins of these three GRBs, supported by the following. (1) Their X-ray MEs and EEs show unambiguous fallback accretion signatures, decreasing as ∝ t −5/3, which might account for their long durations. The EEs could result from the fallback accretion of r-process heating materials, which is predicted to occur after NSBH mergers. (2) The beaming-corrected local event-rate density for these types of merger-origin long-duration GRBs is  0 ∼ 2.4 − 1.3 + 2.3 Gpc − 3 yr − 1 , consistent with that of NS-first-born NSBH mergers. (3) Our detailed analysis of the EE, afterglow, and kilonova of the recent high-impact event GRB 211211A reveals that it could be a merger between a ∼ 1.23 − 0.07 + 0.06 M ⊙ NS and a ∼ 8.21 − 0.75 + 0.77 M ⊙ BH, with an aligned spin of χ BH ∼ 0.62 − 0.07 + 0.06 , supporting an NS-first-born NSBH formation channel. A long-duration burst, with a rebrightening fallback accretion signature after the ME, and a bright kilonova, might be commonly observed features for on-axis NSBH mergers. We estimate the multimessenger detection rate between gravitational waves, GRBs, and kilonova emissions from NSBH mergers in O4 (O5) to be ∼0.1 yr−1 (∼1 yr−1).