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Title: The Origin of r-process Elements in the Milky Way

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [2];  [4];  [5];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [5];  [6];  [7]
  1. Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Hungary). Konkoly Observatory. Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences; Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics Center for the Evolution of Elements (JINA-CEE), Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  2. Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics Center for the Evolution of Elements (JINA-CEE), Notre Dame, IN (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Warsaw (Poland). Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center
  4. Radboud Univ. Nijmegen (Netherlands). Inst. of Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics
  5. Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  6. Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics Center for the Evolution of Elements (JINA-CEE), Notre Dame, IN (United States); Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  7. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Some of the heavy elements, such as gold and europium (Eu), are almost exclusively formed by the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). However, it is still unclear which astrophysical site between core-collapse supernovae and neutron star–neutron star (NS–NS) mergers produced most of the r-process elements in the universe. Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) models can test these scenarios by quantifying the frequency and yields required to reproduce the amount of europium (Eu) observed in galaxies. Although NS–NS mergers have become popular candidates, their required frequency (or rate) needs to be consistent with that obtained from gravitational wave measurements. We address the first NS–NS merger detected by LIGO/Virgo (GW170817) and its associated gamma-ray burst and analyze their implication for the origin of r-process elements. The range of NS–NS merger rate densities of 320–4740 Gpc-3 yr-1 provided by LIGO/Virgo is remarkably consistent with the range required by GCE to explain the Eu abundances in the Milky Way with NS–NS mergers, assuming the solar r-process abundance pattern for the ejecta. Under the same assumption, this event has produced about 1–5 Earth masses of Eu, and 3–13 Earth masses of gold. When using theoretical calculations to derive Eu yields, constraining the role of NS–NS mergers becomes more challenging because of nuclear astrophysics uncertainties. This is the first study that directly combines nuclear physics uncertainties with GCE calculations. Finally, if GW170817 is a representative event, NS–NS mergers can produce Eu in sufficient amounts and are likely to be the main r-process site.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); University of Notre Dame, IN (United States); Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics Center for the Evolution of Elements (JINA-CEE), Notre Dame, IN (United States); Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Hungary); Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Warsaw (Poland)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF); European Research Council (ERC); National Science Centre (NCN) (Poland)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; AC52-07NA27344; SC0013039; PHY-1430152; 724560; DEC-2012/07/E/ST9/01360; 2015/19/B/ST9/01099; 2015/19/B/ST9/03188
OSTI ID:
1480020
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-29520
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 855, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 147 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Evolution of the Milky Way with radial motions of stars and gas: II. The evolution of abundance profiles from H to Ni journal August 2015
Planck 2015 results : XXIII. The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect-cosmic infrared background correlation journal September 2016
A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source text January 2017
Identification of strontium in the merger of two neutron stars journal October 2019
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GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral other January 2017
Estimating the contribution of dynamical ejecta in the kilonova associated with GW170817 text January 2017
Planck 2015 results : XXVI. The Second journal September 2016
The r-process of stellar nucleosynthesis: Astrophysics and nuclear physics achievements and mysteries text January 2007
The dynamic ejecta of compact object mergers and eccentric collisions text January 2012
The mass ejection from the merger of binary neutron stars text January 2012
Massive double compact object mergers: gravitational wave sources and r-process-element production sites text January 2013
Implications of PSR J0737-3039B for the Galactic NS-NS Binary Merger Rate text January 2013
Europium production: neutron star mergers versus core-collapse supernovae text January 2013
Neutrino-driven winds from neutron star merger remnants text January 2014
Comprehensive nucleosynthesis analysis for ejecta of compact binary mergers text January 2014
Outflows from accretion disks formed in neutron star mergers: effect of black hole spin text January 2014
Evolution of the Milky Way with radial motions of stars and gas I. The solar neighborhood and the thin and thick disk text January 2014
Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters text January 2015
A possible Macronova in the late afterglow of the `long-short' burst GRB 060614 text January 2015
Dynamical mass ejection from the merger of asymmetric binary neutron stars: Radiation-hydrodynamics study in general relativity text January 2016
$\mathit{Chempy}$: A flexible chemical evolution model for abundance fitting - Do the Sun's abundances alone constrain chemical evolution models? text January 2017
Signatures of hypermassive neutron star lifetimes on r-process nucleosynthesis in the disk ejecta from neutron star mergers text January 2017
Estimation of M1 scissors mode strength for deformed nuclei in the medium to heavy mass region by statistical Hauser-Feshbach model calculations text January 2017
Neutron Star Mergers and Nucleosynthesis of Heavy Elements text January 2017
The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational wave event GW 170817 text January 2017
Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger text January 2017
Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: detection of a blue kilonova text January 2017
Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational wave event text January 2017
GW170817/GRB 170817A/AT2017gfo association: some implications for physics and astrophysics text January 2017
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral text January 2017
Estimating the Contribution of Dynamical Ejecta in the Kilonova Associated with GW170817 text January 2017
A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source text January 2017
Optical emission from a kilonova following a gravitational-wave-detected neutron-star merger text January 2017
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Cited By (63)

Influence of nuclear physics inputs and astrophysical conditions on r-process journal February 2019
Binary neutron stars and production of heavy elements journal January 2019
The origin of s-process isotope heterogeneity in the solar protoplanetary disk journal December 2019
A nearby neutron-star merger explains the actinide abundances in the early Solar System journal May 2019
The origin of the first neutron star – neutron star merger journal July 2018
Abundance to age ratios in the HARPS-GTO sample with Gaia DR2 : Chemical clocks for a range of [Fe/H]★★★ journal April 2019
A statistical method for the identification of stars enriched in neutron-capture elements from medium-resolution spectra journal October 2019
Equation-of-state constraints and the QCD phase transition in the era of gravitational-wave astronomy
  • Bauswein, Andreas; Bastian, Niels-Uwe Friedrich; Blaschke, David
  • XIAMEN-CUSTIPEN WORKSHOP ON THE EQUATION OF STATE OF DENSE NEUTRON-RICH MATTER IN THE ERA OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVE ASTRONOMY, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5117803
conference January 2019
r -process nucleosynthesis: connecting rare-isotope beam facilities with the cosmos journal July 2019
On the formation of neutron stars via accretion-induced collapse in binaries journal January 2019
The chemical evolution of r-process elements from neutron star mergers: the role of a 2-phase interstellar medium journal April 2019
The role of magnetic field geometry in the evolution of neutron star merger accretion discs journal September 2019
Neutron star binary orbits in their host potential: effect on early r-process enrichment journal September 2019
A luminosity distribution for kilonovae based on short gamma-ray burst afterglows journal March 2019
A new delay time distribution for merging neutron stars tested against Galactic and cosmic data journal April 2019
Role of the symmetry energy and the neutron-matter stiffness on the tidal deformability of a neutron star with unified equations of state journal September 2019
Origins of meteoritic nanodiamonds investigated by coordinated atom‐probe tomography and transmission electron microscopy studies journal August 2019
GW170817 --the first observed neutron star merger and its kilonova: Implications for the astrophysical site of the r-process journal November 2019
Kinematics of Highly r -process-enhanced Field Stars: Evidence for an Accretion Origin and Detection of Several Groups from Disrupted Satellites journal October 2018
From Actinides to Zinc: Using the Full Abundance Pattern of the Brightest Star in Reticulum II to Distinguish between Different r -process Sites journal April 2018
The R -Process Alliance: A Comprehensive Abundance Analysis of HD 222925, a Metal-poor Star with an Extreme R -process Enhancement of [Eu/H] = −0.14 journal October 2018
β -delayed Fission in r -process Nucleosynthesis journal December 2018
Actinide Production in the Neutron-rich Ejecta of a Neutron Star Merger journal December 2018
The Origin of r -process Enhanced Metal-poor Halo Stars In Now-destroyed Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxies journal February 2019
Neutron Star Mergers Might Not Be the Only Source of r -process Elements in the Milky Way journal April 2019
On Neutron Star Mergers as the Source of r -process-enhanced Metal-poor Stars in the Milky Way journal April 2019
Finding the Remnants of the Milky Way's Last Neutron Star Mergers journal July 2019
Impact of Pulsar and Fallback Sources on Multifrequency Kilonova Models journal July 2019
Actinide-rich and Actinide-poor r -process-enhanced Metal-poor Stars Do Not Require Separate r -process Progenitors journal August 2019
Merging Rates of Compact Binaries in Galaxies: Perspectives for Gravitational Wave Detections journal August 2019
The Lanthanide Fraction Distribution in Metal-poor Stars: A Test of Neutron Star Mergers as the Dominant r -process Site journal August 2019
Chemical Abundance Analysis of Tucana III, the Second r -process Enhanced Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxy journal September 2019
Can Neutron-star Mergers Explain the r -process Enrichment in Globular Clusters? journal November 2019
Learning about the Intermediate Neutron-capture Process from Lead Abundances journal December 2019
Gamma Rays from Kilonova: A Potential Probe of r -process Nucleosynthesis journal February 2020
r -process Enrichment in the Galactic Halo Characterized by Nucleosynthesis Variation in the Ejecta of Coalescing Neutron Star Binaries journal January 2020
ν bhlight : Radiation GRMHD for Neutrino-driven Accretion Flows journal April 2019
GROWTH on S190426c: Real-time Search for a Counterpart to the Probable Neutron Star–Black Hole Merger using an Automated Difference Imaging Pipeline for DECam journal August 2019
High-precision stellar abundances of the elements: methods and applications journal October 2018
From the microscopic to the macroscopic world: from nucleons to neutron stars journal August 2019
The R -Process Alliance: First Release from the Northern Search for r -process-enhanced Metal-poor Stars in the Galactic Halo journal November 2018
The Origin of S-Process Isotope Heterogeneity in the Solar Protoplanetary Disk conference January 2020
Kilonovae journal December 2019
Using excitation-energy dependent fission yields to identify key fissioning nuclei in r -process nucleosynthesis journal April 2019
From actinides to zinc: Using the full abundance pattern of the brightest star in Reticulum II to distinguish between different r-process sites text January 2018
The R-Process Alliance: First Release from the Northern Search for r-Process Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars in the Galactic Halo text January 2018
High-precision stellar abundances of the elements - methods and applications text January 2018
Using excitation-energy dependent fission yields to identify key fissioning nuclei in r-process nucleosynthesis text January 2018
On Neutron Star Mergers as the Source of r-process Enhanced Metal Poor Stars in the Milky Way text January 2018
A new delay time distribution for merging neutron stars tested against Galactic and cosmic data text January 2019
Abundance to age ratios in the HARPS-GTO sample with Gaia DR2: Chemical clocks for a range of [Fe/H] text January 2019
From the microscopic to the macroscopic world: from nucleons to neutron stars text January 2019
Equation-of-state Constraints and the QCD Phase Transition in the Era of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy text January 2019
Actinide-rich and Actinide-poor $r$-Process Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars do not Require Separate $r$-Process Progenitors text January 2019
Impact of Pulsar and Fallback Sources on Multifrequency Kilonova Models text January 2019
The lanthanide fraction distribution in metal-poor stars: a test of neutron star mergers as the dominant r-process site text January 2019
Gamma-rays from kilonova: a potential probe of r-process nucleosynthesis text January 2019
Neutron star binary orbits in their host potential: effect on early r-process enrichment text January 2019
Merging Rates of Compact Binaries in Galaxies: Perspectives for Gravitational Wave Detections text January 2019
Gradient sub-grid-scale model for relativistic MHD Large Eddy Simulations text January 2019
A statistical method for the identification of stars enriched in neutron-capture elements from medium-resolution spectra text January 2019
Role of the symmetry energy and the neutron-matter stiffness on the tidal deformability of a neutron star with unified equations of state text January 2019
r-Process enrichment in the Galactic halo characterized by nucleosynthesis variation in the ejecta of coalescing neutron star binaries text January 2019

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