Electromagnetic draping of merging neutron stars

Abstract

We first derive a set of equations describing general stationary configurations of relativistic force-free plasma, without assuming any geometric symmetries. We then demonstrate that electromagnetic interaction of merging neutron stars is necessarily dissipative due to the effect of electromagnetic draping - creation of dissipative regions near the star (in the single-magnetized case) or at the magnetospheric boundary (in the double-magnetized case). Our results indicate that even in the single magnetized case we expect that relativistic jets (or ``tongues'') are produced, with correspondingly beamed emission pattern.