|
Speaker |
Falcke, Heino |
|
Coauthors |
Rezzolla, Luciano |
| Talk Title |
Blitzars: fast radio bursts from collapsing supramassive neutron stars |
|
Abstract |
We here discuss the observational signatures of supramassive pulsar-like neutron stars, i.e. neutron stars with a tenuous magnetosphere, collapsing to a black hole. Such a collapse must eventually occur, if the neutron star is brought above its critical mass for non-rotating neutron stars by either formation, merger, or accretion and is only supported by rapid rotation. Magnetic braking slows down the neutron star and leads to a sudden collapse to a black hole state. Due to the formation of an event horizon any surface emission will be hidden from our view rather quickly and the magnetic-field lines will snap violently at the horizon scale. A massive magnetic wave will form that can turn an almost ordinary pulsar into a bright radio "blitzar": Accelerated electrons from the travelling magnetic shock dissipate a significant fraction of the entire magnetosphere and produce a bright radio burst on millisecond timescales that is observable out to cosmological distances. Such blitzars could be one explanation of the recently discovered Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), if they are indeed from cosmological distances. |
|
Talk view |
|
|
|
|