Binary neutron star mergers with missing electromagnetic counterparts as manifestations of mirror world

Abstract

We suggest that the major fraction of binary mergers, which might provide gravitational wave signal detectable by LIGO/VIRGO, emerged from the hidden mirror sector. Mirror particles do not interact with an ordinary observer except gravitationally, which is the reason why no electromagnetic signals accompanying gravitational waves from mergers with components composed of mirror matter are expected. Therefore, if the dark matter budget of the universe is mostly contributed by the mirror particles, we predict that only about one binary neutron star (neutron star - black hole) merger out of ten, observable by LIGO/VIRGO, in particular at favorable conditions relative to the line of sight, could be accompanied by prompt gamma ray burst and other electromagnetic signals suitable for follow up observations. It seems the list of candidate events recorded by LIGO/VIRGO during third observational run supports our predictions. Keywords: Multi-messenger astrophysics, Gravitational waves, Neutron stars, Dark matter, Black holes