Princeton University Gravity Initiative Seminar

Abstract: Black holes (BHs) can acquire magnetosphere and horizon-penetrating magnetic fluxes from plasma inflow or mergers with magnetized neutron stars. Several numerical studies have shown that a black hole magnetosphere relaxes into a split monopole configuration and dissipates its energy via magnetic reconnection in current sheets, powering a “balding transient”. In this talk, I will present our recent simulation of a non-disrupting black hole-neutron star merger tracking this process in full numerical relativity, demonstrating the birth of a short-lived black hole pulsar, and its accelerated magnetic decay associated with the quasi-normal modes of the remnant BH.