Jets from Neutron-Star Merger Remnants and Massive Blue Kilonovae

We perform three-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations with weak interactions of binary neutron-star (BNS) mergers resulting in a long-lived remnant neutron star, with properties typical of galactic BNS and consistent with those inferred for the first observed BNS merger GW170817. We demonstrate self-consistently that within 30 ms postmerger magnetized (σ~5--10) incipient jets emerge with asymptotic Lorentz factor Γ~5--10, which successfully break out from the merger debris within 20 ms. A fast (v0.6c), magnetized (σ~0.1) wind surrounds the jet core and generates a UV/blue kilonova precursor on timescales of hours, similar to the precursor signal due to free neutron decay in fast dynamical ejecta. Postmerger ejecta are quickly dominated by magnetohydrodynamically driven outflows from an accretion disk. We demonstrate that, within only 50 ms postmerger, 2×10^-2M_ of lanthanide-free, quasispherical ejecta with velocities ~0.1--0.2c is launched, yielding a kilonova signal consistent with GW170817 on timescales of 5 d.