MSI Seminar

Mass ejection, compact objects, and electromagnetic transients

Rodrigo Fernandez

University of Alberta

Mass ejection is involved in the generation of many types of electromagnetic transient, often in the presence of at least one compact stellar object. A variety of processes can cause mass to become unbound from a gravitational field, including neutrino emission or absorption, magnetic stresses, angular momentum transport, or nuclear processes. In this talk I will discuss astrophysical situations in which non-trivial mass ejection from the vicinity of a compact object should occur, including the accretion disk formed in a neutron star merger, failed supernovae, and accretion disks from white dwarf - neutron star mergers.