Title: Mass ejection, compact objects, and electromagnetic transients
Abstract:
Mass ejection is involved in the generation of many types of electromagnetic transient, often in the presence of at least one compact stellar object. A variety of processes can cause mass to become unbound from a gravitational field, including neutrino emission or absorption, magnetic stresses, angular momentum transport, or nuclear processes. In this talk I will discuss astrophysical situations in which non-trivial mass ejection from the vicinity of a compact object should occur, including the accretion disk formed in a neutron star merger, failed supernovae, and accretion disks from white dwarf - neutron star mergers.