4 Dec 2024

What happens after neutron stars merge? Dr. Antonia Rowlinson has received an ERC Consolidator Grant to find an answer to that fundamental question.

Neutron stars are relatively small stellar objects that are roughly the size of Amsterdam (10 km radius) but contain a mass equivalent to that of the Sun – they are the densest objects in the Universe. When neutron stars merge, they produce extremely powerful bursts of gamma rays and gravitational waves (ripples in the fabric of space).

If the product of this merger were an even more massive neutron star, we would expect to see short radio flashes after the merger has occurred. However, such emissions have not yet been unambiguously detected.

Dr. Antonia Rowlinson has received an ERC Consolidator Grant to find an answer to the fundamental question of what happens after neutron star merge by using ASTRON’s LOFAR, the largest low frequency radio telescope in the world. Rowlinson’s project, called QuickBlitz, will also build a new instrument on LOFAR that will be able to search the whole visible radio sky above the Netherlands for the tell-tale radio flashes.

[Image]

Artist impression of short radio flashes emitted after the merger of two neutron stars