| Author(s) and Co-Author(s) with Affiliation: Dhruv Jain(Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital - 263002, India), Shasvath J. Kapadia(Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune - 411007, India), Kuntal Misra(Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital-263002, India), Dimple(Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT), L. Resmi(Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology, Trivandrum 695547, India), Ajay Kumar Singh(Department of Applied Physics/ Physics, Bareilly College, Mahatma Jyotibha Phule Rohilkhand University, Bareilly-243001, India), K. G. Arun(Chennai Mathematical Institute, Siruseri, 603103 Tamil Nadu, India) |
| Abstract: Luminous Red Novae (LRNe) have been argued to be related to the ejection of common envelopes (CEs) in binary star systems. Ejection of CEs leads to tightened stellar orbits capable of forming compact binaries that merge in Hubble time. As these mergers are seen by gravitational-wave (GW) detectors such as LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA (LVK), we ask what the merger rates of compact binaries in LVK tell us about the fraction of LRNe that lead to the formation of compact binaries that merge in Hubble time. Using the observed volumetric rates of LRNe from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and of compact binary mergers from LVK observations, we derive limits on the fraction of LRNe that produce compact binaries that merge in Hubble time. Assuming the LRNe rate closely follows the star formation rate at any redshift, we use the delay time distribution models for compact binaries to compute the compact binary merger rate. A comparison of this merger rate with the latest volumetric rates of compact binary mergers from the fourth GW transient catalog (GWTC-4) at the present epoch of LVK allows us to constrain the above fraction. We find that the majority of the LRNe population will not lead to mergers of compact objects, but other end products, such as stellar mergers. |
