Prompt Collapse Thresholds in Binary Neutron Star Mergers and Their Shift Under the Density Bound

When two neutron stars merge, the remnant either collapses promptly to a black hole, survives briefly as a hypermassive star held up by differential rotation, or endures, and the boundary between those fates is a threshold total mass near 2.9 solar masses that gravitational-wave astronomy now uses as an equation-of-state probe. This paper computes the correction the neutron-branch density bound makes to that threshold. Remnant central densities of two to four times saturation density give correction fractions from 5.76e-41 to the three-times-saturation value of 8.64e-41, bounding the shift of the threshold mass at 2.51e-40 solar masses. The prompt-collapse threshold measures the nuclear equation of state and rotation alone; the density bound cannot move a merger remnant across the boundary in either direction. Simulated from stated assumptions, not measured.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-11-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24134358
Primary Topic
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Prompt Collapse Thresholds in Binary Neutron Star Mergers and Their Shift Under the Density Bound

William Alexander Aldred
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
article

Prompt Collapse Thresholds in Binary Neutron Star Mergers and Their Shift Under the Density Bound

William Alexander Aldred
article en

Abstract

When two neutron stars merge, the remnant either collapses promptly to a black hole, survives briefly as a hypermassive star held up by differential rotation, or endures, and the boundary between those fates is a threshold total mass near 2.9 solar masses that gravitational-wave astronomy now uses as an equation-of-state probe. This paper computes the correction the neutron-branch density bound makes to that threshold. Remnant central densities of two to four times saturation density give correction fractions from 5.76e-41 to the three-times-saturation value of 8.64e-41, bounding the shift of the threshold mass at 2.51e-40 solar masses. The prompt-collapse threshold measures the nuclear equation of state and rotation alone; the density bound cannot move a merger remnant across the boundary in either direction. Simulated from stated assumptions, not measured.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
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