A Model of Short Gamma-Ray Bursts: Heated Neutron Stars in Close Binary Systems

Abstract

In this paper we present a model for the short (< 1 second) population of gamma-ray bursts. In this model heated neutron stars in a close binary system near its last stable orbit emit a large amount of neutrinos (~10^53 ergs). A fraction of these neutrinos will annihilate to form an e+e- pair plasma wind which will, in turn, expand and recombine to photons which make the gamma-ray burst. We study neutrino annihilation and show that a substantial fraction (~1/2) of energy deposited into e+e- pairs comes from inter-star neutrinos, where each member of the neutrino pair originates from each neutron star. Thus, in addition to the annihilation of neutrinos blowing off of a single star, there is a new source of baryon-free plasma that is deposited between the stars. To model the e+e- pair plasma wind between stars, we do three-dimensional relativistic numerical hydrodynamic calculations. We find that the time scale for these bursts, deriving from the baryon-free plasma, is less than one second and they will have a hot spectrum ~5 MeV. The energy in bursts is the order of 10^52 ergs.