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      Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger

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          Abstract

          Merging neutron stars offer an exquisite laboratory for simultaneously studying strong-field gravity and matter in extreme environments. We establish the physical association of an electromagnetic counterpart EM170817 to gravitational waves (GW170817) detected from merging neutron stars. By synthesizing a panchromatic dataset, we demonstrate that merging neutron stars are a long-sought production site forging heavy elements by r-process nucleosynthesis. The weak gamma-rays seen in EM170817 are dissimilar to classical short gamma-ray bursts with ultra-relativistic jets. Instead, we suggest that breakout of a wide-angle, mildly-relativistic cocoon engulfing the jet elegantly explains the low-luminosity gamma-rays, the high-luminosity ultraviolet-optical-infrared and the delayed radio/X-ray emission. We posit that all merging neutron stars may lead to a wide-angle cocoon breakout; sometimes accompanied by a successful jet and sometimes a choked jet.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          16 October 2017
          Article
          10.1126/science.aap9455
          1710.05436
          3407f9a3-9de6-45db-b75b-81ee3cd0381c

          http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

          History
          Custom metadata
          Science, in press DOI 10.1126/science.aap9455, 83 pages, 3 tables, 16 figures
          astro-ph.HE

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