Observational signature of a wind bubble environment for double neutron star mergers

Abstract

During the in-spiral stage of a compact binary, a wind bubble could be blown into the interstellar medium, if electromagnetic radiation due to the binary orbital motion is strong enough. Therefore, short-duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) due to double neutron star mergers would in principle happen in a wind bubble environment, which can influence the propagation of the SGRB jet and consequent afterglow emission. By calculating the dynamics and synchrotron radiation of the jet-driven external shock, we reveal that an abrupt jump could appear in the afterglow light curves of SGRBs and the observational time of the jump is dependent on the viewing angle. This light curve jump provides an observational signature to constrain the radius of the wind bubble and thus the power of the electromagnetic radiation of the binary, by combining with gravitational wave detection.