Propagation of a Short GRB Jet in the Ejecta: Jet Launching Delay Time, Jet Structure, and GW170817/GRB 170817A

We perform a series of relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations to investigate how a hot magnetic jet propagates within the dynamical ejecta of a binary neutron star merger, focusing on how the jet structure depends on the delay time of jet launching with respect to the merger time, Δtjet. We find that regardless of the jet-launching delay time, a structured jet with an angle-dependent luminosity and Lorentz factor is always formed after the jet breaks out of the ejecta. On the other hand, the jet-launching delay time has an impact on the jet structure. If the jet-launching delay time is relatively long, e.g., ≥0.5 s, the line-of-sight material has a dominant contribution from the cocoon. On the other hand, for a relatively short jet-launching delay time, the jet penetrates through the ejecta early on and develops an angular structure afterward. The line-of-sight ejecta is dominated by the structured jet itself. We discuss the case of GW170817/GRB 170817A within the framework of both long and short jet-launching delay time. In the future, more observations of gravitational-wave/gamma-ray burst associations can help to differentiate between these two scenarios.