1998ApJ...509..537P

The standard unbroken electroweak theory is known to erase the baryon number. The baryon number symmetry can be restored in the core of a neutron star if its density diverges via gravitational instability due to a binary merger event. We argue that for certain double Higgs models with discrete symmetries this process may result in an expanding self-sustained burning front that would convert the entire neutron matter into radiation. This process would release ∼10⁵⁴ ergs in electromagnetic radiation over ∼10^–4 s with negligible baryonic contamination. The resulting fireball would have all of the properties necessary to produce a γ-ray burst as a result of its interaction with ambient interstellar gas. The subsequent Higgs decay would produce a millisecond burst of ∼10⁵² ergs in ∼100 GeV neutrinos, which might be observable. The above mechanism may also cause electroweak baryogenesis in the early universe, which gives rise to the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry today.