Engine-fed kilonovae (mergernovae) – I. Dynamical evolution and energy injection/heating efficiencies

Abstract

ABSTRACT A binary neutron star merger is expected to be associated by a kilonova, transient optical emission powered by radioactive decay of the neutron-rich ejecta. If the post-merger remnant is a long-lived neutron star, additional energy injection to the ejecta is possible. In this first paper of a series, we study the dynamical evolution of the engine-fed kilonova (mergernova) ejecta in detail. We perform a semi-analytical study of the problem by adopting a modified mechanical blastwave model that invokes interaction between a Poynting-flux-dominated flow and a non-magnetized massive ejecta. Shortly after the engine is turned on, a pair of shocks would be excited. The reverse shock quickly reaches the wind-acceleration region and disappears (in a few seconds), whereas the forward shock soon breaks out from the ejecta (in 102–103 s) and continues to propagate in the surrounding interstellar medium. Most of the energy injected into the blastwave from the engine is stored as magnetic energy and kinetic energy. The internal energy fraction is fint < 0.3 for an ejecta mass equal to 10−3 M⊙. Overall, the energy injecting efficiency ξ is at most ∼0.6 and can be as small as ∼0.04 at later times. Contrary to the previous assumption, efficient heating only happens before the forward shock breaks out of the ejecta with a heating efficiency ξt ∼ (0.006 − 0.3), which rapidly drops to ∼0 afterwards. The engine-fed kilonova light curves will be carefully studied in Paper II.