Multi-messenger signals from merging neutron stars

Colloquium

Multi-messenger Signals from Merging Neutron Stars

Stephan Rosswog

Stockholm University

         

Neutron star mergers had long been suspected to produce gravitational wave "chirps", gamma ray bursts and produce r-process elements.  While overall convincing, all these conjectures were based on indirect  arguments and none was proven directly.  This changed on August 17, 2017: a gravitational wave signal from a  merging neutron star binary was detected, closely followed by a short gamma-ray burst and week-long transients across the electromagnetic spectrum coming from the radioactive decay of freshly synthesised r-process elements. In this talk I will give an overview over these recent, very exciting developments.