Numerical Study of Gamma‐Ray Burst Jet Formation in Collapsars

Abstract

Two-dimensional MHD simulations are performed using the ZEUS-2D code to investigate the dynamics of a collapsar that generates a GRB jet, taking account of realistic equation of state, neutrino cooling and heating processes, magnetic fields, and gravitational force from the central black hole and self-gravity. It is found that neutrino heating processes are not efficient enough to launch a jet in this study. It is also found that a jet is launched mainly by Bφ fields that are amplified by the winding-up effect. However, since the ratio of total energy relative to the rest-mass energy in the jet is not as high as several hundred, we conclude that the jets seen in this study are not GRB jets. This result suggests that general relativistic effects will be important to generating a GRB jet. Also, the accretion disk with magnetic fields may still play an important role in launching a GRB jet, although a simulation for much longer physical time (∼ 10-100 s) is required to confirm this effect. It is shown that a considerable amount of 56Ni is synthesized in the accretion disk. Thus, there will be a possibility for the accretion disk to supply the sufficient amount of 56Ni required to explain the luminosity of a hypernova. Also, it is shown that neutron-rich matter due to electron captures with high entropy per baryon is ejected along the polar axis. Thus, there will be a possibility that r-process nucleosynthesis occurs at such a region. Finally, many neutrons will be ejected from the jet, which suggests that signals from the neutron decays may be observed as the delayed bump of the light curve of the afterglow or gamma rays. © 2007. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.