The Optical Afterglow of GW170817: An Off-axis Structured Jet and Deep Constraints on a Globular Cluster Origin
Aug 21, 20199 pages
Published in:
- Astrophys.J.Lett. 883 (2019) 1, L1
- Published: Sep 17, 2019
e-Print:
- 1908.08046 [astro-ph.HE]
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Abstract: (IOP)
We present a revised and complete optical afterglow light curve of the binary neutron star merger GW170817, enabled by deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) F606W observations at ≈584 days post-merger, which provide a robust optical template. The light curve spans ≈110–362 days, and is fully consistent with emission from a relativistic structured jet viewed off-axis, as previously indicated by radio and X-ray data. Combined with contemporaneous radio and X-ray observations, we find no spectral evolution, with a weighted average spectral index of , demonstrating that no synchrotron break frequencies evolve between the radio and X-ray bands over these timescales. We find that an extrapolation of the post-peak temporal slope of GW170817 to the luminosities of cosmological short gamma-ray bursts matches their observed jet break times, suggesting that their explosion properties are similar, and that the primary difference in GW170817 is viewing angle. Additionally, we place a deep limit on the luminosity and mass of an underlying globular cluster (GC) of L ≲ 6.7 × 103 L ⊙, or M ≲ 1.3 × 104 M ⊙, at least 4 standard deviations below the peak of the GC mass function of the host galaxy, NGC 4993. This limit provides a direct and strong constraint that GW170817 did not form and merge in a GC. As highlighted here, HST (and soon the James Webb Space Telescope) enables critical observations of the optical emission from neutron star merger jets and outflows.Note:
- 11 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted to ApJ Letters
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