Fallback Accretion Halted by R-process Heating in Neutron Star Mergers and Gamma-Ray Bursts

Abstract

Abstract The gravitational wave event GW170817 with a macronova/kilonova shows that a merger of two neutron stars ejects matter with radioactivity including r-process nucleosynthesis. A part of the ejecta inevitably falls back to the central object, possibly powering long-lasting activities of a short gamma-ray burst (sGRB), such as extended and plateau emissions. We investigate fallback accretion with r-process heating by performing one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations and developing a semi-analytical model. We show that the usual fallback rate dM/dt ∝ t −5/3 is halted by the heating because pressure gradients accelerate ejecta beyond an escape velocity. The suppression is steeper than Chevalier’s power-law model through Bondi accretion within a turn-around radius. The characteristic halting timescale is ∼104–108 s for the GW170817-like r-process heating, which is longer than the typical timescale of the long-lasting emission of sGRBs. The halting timescale is sensitive to the uncertainty of the r-process. Future observations of fallback halting could constrain the r-process heating on the scale of a year.