Short gamma-ray bursts and mergers of compact objects: Observational constraints

Gamma-ray burst (GRB) data accumulated over the years have shown that the distribution of their time duration is bimodal. While there is some evidence that long bursts are associated with star-forming regions, nothing is known regarding the class of short bursts. Their very short timescales are hard to explain with the collapse of a massive star but would be naturally produced by the merger of two compact objects, such as two neutron stars (NS-NS), or a neutron star and a black hole (NS-BH). As for the case of long bursts, afterglow obervations for short bursts should help reveal their origin. By using updated population synthesis code calculations, we simulate a cosmological population of merging NS-NS and NS-BH and compute the distribution of their galactic offsets, the density distribution of their environment, and, if indeed associated with GRBs, their expected afterglow characteristics.