Compact binary mergers: SGRBs comma r-process kilonovae & gravitational-wave sources

Merging compact binaries are widely thought to produce shortGRBs and are alsothe most promising targets for the new gravitational wave detectors. Recently wefound evidence for an rprocess kilonova accompanying a SGRB, which bothconfirms the compact binary model, and provides an alternative, unbeamed EMsignal of GW events. It also opens a route to estimating the yield of suchevents and hence their contribution to global heavy element production.Understanding the range of KN behaviour requires deep, multiwavelength followupof future events. Xray observations are key to quantifying the contributions ofrelativistic jet emission and later time engine activity (accretion or magnetarspindown), and distinguishing mergers from unrelated interlopers amongst GW counterpart candidates. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]