On the diversity of short gamma-ray bursts

Abstract

Hydrodynamical simulations of the last inspiral stages and the final coalescence of a double neutron star system are used to investigate the power of the neutrino-driven wind, the energy and momentum of the fireball produced via ν ν̄ annihilation, and the intensity and character of their interaction. It is argued that the outflow that derives from the debris will have enough pressure to collimate the relativistic fireball it surrounds. Then the low-luminosity relativistic jet will appear brighter to an observer within the beam, although most of the energy of the event is in the unseen, less collimated and slower wind. This model leads to a simple physical interpretation of the isotropic luminosities implied for short gamma-ray bursts at cosmological distances. A wide variety of burst phenomenology could be attributable to the dependence of the neutrino luminosity on the initial mass of the double neutron star binary.