ON THE INDUCED GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE OF A NEUTRON STAR TO A BLACK HOLE BY A TYPE Ib/c SUPERNOVA

It is understood that the supernovae (SNe) associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are of Type Ib/c. The temporal coincidence of the GRB and the SN continues to represent a major enigma of Relativistic Astrophysics. We elaborate here, from the earlier paradigm, that the concept of induced gravitational collapse is essential to explain the GRB–SN connection. The specific case of a close (orbital period <1 hr) binary system composed of an evolved star with a neutron star (NS) companion is considered. We evaluate the accretion rate onto the NS of the material expelled from the explosion of the core progenitor as a Type Ib/c SN and give the explicit expression of the accreted mass as a function of the nature of the components and binary parameters. We show that the NS can reach, in a few seconds, critical mass and consequently gravitationally collapse to a black hole. This gravitational collapse process leads to the emission of the GRB.