Calculating the gamma-ray luminosity from neutron star mergers’ jets

Binary neutron star (BNS) mergers result in short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The number of GRBs as a function of their gamma-ray luminosity is observed to be a “broken” power-law function for both short and long GRBs. For long GRBs, this function can be explained by long GRB jets breaking out from the stellar envelope only if they are powerful enough. This reason does not work for short GRB jets considering the merger surrounding ejecta, so we explore the possibility that this function is an intrinsic property of the the resulting central engines in BNS mergers. Our approach begins by calculating the gamma-ray luminosity of short GRBs starting from the two merging objects using results of numerical simulations published in the literature. Following this, we will consider the number of these events in order to determine if their luminosity function is expected to be a broken power-law as observed. This work describes the first steps on this approach.