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Black-hole-neutron-star (BHNS) binary mergers can form disks in which magnetorotational instability (MRI)-induced turbulence may drive accretion onto the remnant BH, supporting relativistic jets and providing the engine for a short-hard gamma-ray burst (SGRB). Our earlier study of magnetized BHNSs showed that NS tidal disruption winds the magnetic field into a toroidal configuration, with poloidal fields so weak that capturing MRI with full-disk simulations would require ∼108 CPU hours. In that study we imposed equatorial symmetry, suppressing poloidal magnetic fields that might be generated from plasma crossing the orbital plane. Here we show that initial conditions that break this symmetry (i.e., tilted poloidal magnetic fields in the NS) generate much stronger poloidal fields in the disk, indicating that asymmetric initial conditions may be necessary for establishing BHNS mergers as SGRB progenitors via fully general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We demonstrate that BHNS mergers may form an SGRB engine under the right conditions by seeding the remnant disk from an unmagnetized BHNS simulation with purely poloidal fields dynamically unimportant initially, but strong enough to resolve MRI. Magnetic turbulence occurs in the disk, driving accretion and supporting Poynting-dominated jet outflows sufficient to power an SGRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform the first general relativistic force-free simulations of neutron star magnetospheres in orbit about spinning and nonspinning black holes. We find promising precursor electromagnetic emission: typical Poynting luminosities at, e.g., an orbital separation of r=6.6RNS are LEM~6×1042(BNS,p/1013 G)²(MNS/1.4M⊙)² erg/s. The Poynting flux peaks within a broad beam of ~40° in the azimuthal direction and within ~60° from the orbital plane, establishing a possible lighthouse effect. Our calculations, though preliminary, preview more detailed simulations of these systems that we plan to perform in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on simulations in general relativity of magnetized disks accreting onto black hole binaries. We vary the binary mass ratio from 1:1 to 1:10 and evolve the systems when they orbit near the binary-disk decoupling radius. We compare (surface) density profiles, accretion rates (relative to a single, nonspinning black hole), variability, effective a-stress levels and luminosities as functions of the mass ratio. We treat the disks in two limiting regimes: rapid radiative cooling and no radiative cooling. The magnetic field lines clearly reveal jets emerging from both black hole horizons and merging into one common jet at large distances. The magnetic fields give rise to much stronger shock heating than the pure hydrodynamic flows, completely alter the disk structure, and boost accretion rates and luminosities. Accretion streams near the horizons are among the densest structures; in fact, the 1:10 no-cooling evolution results in a refilling of the cavity. The typical effective temperature in the bulk of the disk is ~105(M/108M⊙)-1/4(L/Ledd)1/4 K yielding characteristic thermal frequencies ~1015(M/108M⊙)-1/4(L/Ledd)1/4(1+z)-1 Hz. These systems are thus promising targets for many extragalactic optical surveys, such as the LSST, WFIRST, and PanSTARRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]