Constraining the ellipticity and frequency of binary neutron star remnant via its gravitational-wave and electromagnetic radiations

Abstract

ABSTRACT The nature of the merger remnant of binary neutron star remains an open question. From the theoretical point of view, one possible outcome is a supra-massive neutron star (SMNS), which is supported by rigid rotation and through its survival of hundreds of seconds before collapsing into a black hole. If this is the case, the SMNS can emit continuous gravitational waves (GW) and electromagnetic radiation, particularly in the X-ray band. In this work, the ellipticity and initial frequency of SMNS are constrained with a Bayesian framework using simulated X-ray and GW signals, which could be detected by The Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor and Einstein Telescope, respectively. We found that only considering the X-ray emission cannot completely constrain the initial frequency and ellipticity of the SMNS, but it can reduce the ranges of the parameters. Afterwards, we can use the posterior distribution of the X-ray parameter estimates as a prior for the GW parameter estimates. It was found that the 95 per cent credible region of the joint X-ray–GW analysis was about 105 times smaller than that of the X-ray analysis alone.