2015ApJ...804L..16K

Whether a short gamma-ray burst (GRB) is caused by a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS) after the merger of an NS binary is a crucial problem. We propose a BH model that explains short GRBs with long-lasting activities such as extended emission and plateau emission up to ∼10,000 s. To extract the BH rotational energy, the topological evolution of the magnetic field should accompany the mass ejection, mass fallback, and magnetic field reconnection. The observations suggest magnetic field decay from ∼10¹⁴ to 10¹³ - 10¹¹ G at the BH, bounded below by the pre-merger strength and kept constant while the luminosity is constant, and the fallback mass of ∼ 10^–4 - 10^–2M_☉, comparable to the ejecta mass implied by the macronova (or kilonova) in GRB 130603B. The BH model has implications for gravitational waves and the equation of state of NS matter.