New model for colliding stars: what happens after the impact

New model for colliding stars: what happens after the impact

Artistic vision of the collision of two neutron stars. An American researcher has created a 3D computer simulation that allows you to take a better look at what happens after the impact.

The new three-dimensional computer model provides unprecedented detail of the consequences of the collision of two neutron stars. It allows you to better understand how some of the fundamental elements (gold and lead) of the Universe are formed in cosmic collisions.

Scientists for the first time managed to see a gamma-ray burst from the collision of two neutron stars, which allows us to calculate the mass of neutron stars and even confirm how quickly the Universe is expanding. Neutron stars are the smallest and densest objects, which manage to reach the size of a city with a solar mass. In a collision, they merge in a flash of light and shrapnel.

So far, it has not been possible to create a sufficiently complex computer model to explain where all this material ends. However, the new model shows that the accretion disk throws out twice as much material at higher speeds as compared to the previous two-dimensional models.

New model for colliding stars: what happens after the impact

The cross section of the model of two colliding neutron stars shows an accretion disk (red) around the central black hole. Astrophysical jet - blue funnel above and below the black hole

Of course, new results do not completely eliminate disputes, but we get more accurate figures. The model also made it possible to take into account another method of ejecting substances in a collision: a narrow plume of particles and radiation formed on the astrophysical jet, which flew almost at the speed of light. It is believed that the jet acts as a source of gamma-ray burst.

Creating a 3D model is a difficult task. A neutron star collision event lasts only a millisecond, and an accretion disk lasts a few seconds. But the formation includes complex physics and a multitude of physical processes that take place simultaneously. Especially difficult to deal with the magnetic field. Scientists know the equation describing this process; however, 3D cannot be done here. As a result, it is necessary not only to perform the simulation for a long time, but also to model it in three dimensions, which is expensive.

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