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Title: Signatures of hypermassive neutron star lifetimes on r-process nucleosynthesis in the disc ejecta from neutron star mergers

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [4];  [6]
  1. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB (Canada); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  4. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Columbia Astrophysics Lab.
  5. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  6. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); Kyoto Univ. (Japan)

We investigate the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in the winds ejected by accretion discs formed in neutron star mergers. We compute the element formation in disc outflows from hypermassive neutron star (HMNS) remnants of variable lifetime, including the effect of angular momentum transport in the disc evolution. We employ long-term axisymmetric hydrodynamic disc simulations to model the ejecta, and compute r-process nucleosynthesis with tracer particles using a nuclear reaction network containing ~8000 species. We find that the previously known strong correlation between HMNS lifetime, ejected mass and average electron fraction in the outflow is directly related to the amount of neutrino irradiation on the disc, which dominates mass ejection at early times in the form of a neutrino-driven wind. Production of lanthanides and actinides saturates at short HMNS lifetimes (≲10 ms), with additional ejecta contributing to a blue optical kilonova component for longer-lived HMNSs. We find good agreement between the abundances from the disc outflow alone and the solar r-process distribution only for short HMNS lifetimes (≲10 ms). For longer lifetimes, the rare-earth and third r-process peaks are significantly underproduced compared to the solar pattern, requiring additional contributions from the dynamical ejecta. The nucleosynthesis signature from a spinning black hole (BH) can only overlap with that from an HMNS of moderate lifetime (≲60 ms). Finally, we show that angular momentum transport not only contributes with a late-time outflow component, but that it also enhances the neutrino-driven component by moving material to shallower regions of the gravitational potential, in addition to providing additional heating.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1526485
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 472, Issue 1; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 129 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Kilonovae journal December 2019
The origin of polarization in kilonovae and the case of the gravitational-wave counterpart AT 2017gfo journal November 2018
All the fun of the FAIR: fundamental physics at the facility for antiproton and ion research journal January 2019
Long-lived remnants from binary neutron star mergers journal September 2018
The COMBS survey – I. Chemical origins of metal-poor stars in the Galactic bulge journal July 2019
Neutron star binary orbits in their host potential: effect on early r-process enrichment journal September 2019
Multimessenger parameter estimation of GW170817 journal April 2019
GW170817 --the first observed neutron star merger and its kilonova: Implications for the astrophysical site of the r-process journal November 2019
A Magnetar Origin for the Kilonova Ejecta in GW170817 journal March 2018
The R -Process Alliance: First Release from the Northern Search for r -process-enhanced Metal-poor Stars in the Galactic Halo journal November 2018
Binary Neutron Star Mergers: Mass Ejection, Electromagnetic Counterparts, and Nucleosynthesis journal December 2018
When Did the Remnant of GW170817 Collapse to a Black Hole? journal May 2019
Probing the Production of Actinides under Different r-process Conditions journal July 2019
The Lanthanide Fraction Distribution in Metal-poor Stars: A Test of Neutron Star Mergers as the Dominant r -process Site journal August 2019
r -process Enrichment in the Galactic Halo Characterized by Nucleosynthesis Variation in the Ejecta of Coalescing Neutron Star Binaries journal January 2020
SkyNet: A Modular Nuclear Reaction Network Library journal December 2017
Neutron-star Radius Constraints from GW170817 and Future Detections journal November 2017
AT 2017gfo: An Anisotropic and Three-component Kilonova Counterpart of GW170817 journal November 2017
GW170817: Joint Constraint on the Neutron Star Equation of State from Multimessenger Observations journal January 2018
The r -process Pattern of a Bright, Highly r -process-enhanced Metal-poor Halo Star at [Fe/H] ∼ −2 journal February 2018
Radiative Transfer Simulation for the Optical and Near-infrared Electromagnetic Counterparts to GW170817 journal September 2018
Viscous-dynamical Ejecta from Binary Neutron Star Mergers journal December 2018
Can Kilonova Light Curves Be Standardized? journal November 2019
Spiral-wave Wind for the Blue Kilonova journal November 2019
From the microscopic to the macroscopic world: from nucleons to neutron stars journal August 2019
Imprints of r-process heating on fall-back accretion: distinguishing black hole–neutron star from double neutron star mergers journal March 2019
Thermodynamics conditions of matter in neutron star mergers journal August 2019
Properties of Kilonovae from Dynamical and Post-merger Ejecta of Neutron Star Mergers journal January 2018
The Origin of r -process Elements in the Milky Way journal March 2018
Mass Ejection from the Remnant of a Binary Neutron Star Merger: Viscous-radiation Hydrodynamics Study journal June 2018
Is the Macronova in GW170817 Powered by the Central Engine? journal July 2018
Physical Conditions for the r -process. I. Radioactive Energy Sources of Kilonovae journal November 2018
Actinide Production in the Neutron-rich Ejecta of a Neutron Star Merger journal December 2018
The R -Process Alliance: Discovery of a Low- α , r -process-enhanced Metal-poor Star in the Galactic Halo journal April 2019
Diversity of Kilonova Light Curves journal February 2020
The Combined Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-infrared Light Curves of the Kilonova Associated with the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817: Unified Data Set, Analytic Models, and Physical Implications journal December 2017
The Multi-messenger Matrix: The Future of Neutron Star Merger Constraints on the Nuclear Equation of State journal July 2019
Neutrino-dominated Accretion Flows with Magnetic Prandtl Number-dependent MRI-driven Turbulence journal August 2019
Enrichment of Strontium in Dwarf Galaxies journal October 2019
Neutron-star radius constraints from GW170817 and future detections text January 2017
Modeling GW170817 based on numerical relativity and its implications text January 2017
Mass Ejection from the Remnant of a Binary Neutron Star Merger: Viscous-Radiation Hydrodynamics Study text January 2017
AT2017gfo: an anisotropic and three-component kilonova counterpart of GW170817 text January 2017
A magnetar origin for the kilonova ejecta in GW170817 text January 2018
Long-lived Remnants from Binary Neutron Star Mergers text January 2018
Physical conditions for the r-process I. radioactive energy sources of kilonovae text January 2018
Binary Neutron Star Mergers: Mass Ejection, Electromagnetic Counterparts and Nucleosynthesis text January 2018
Viscous-Dynamical Ejecta from Binary Neutron Star Merger text January 2018
Multimessenger Parameter Estimation of GW170817 text January 2018
GW170817$-$the first observed neutron star merger and its kilonova: implications for the astrophysical site of the r-process text January 2019
From the microscopic to the macroscopic world: from nucleons to neutron stars text January 2019
The Multi-Messenger Matrix: the Future of Neutron Star Merger Constraints on the Nuclear Equation of State 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
Constraint on the maximum mass of neutron stars using GW170817 event text January 2019
Full Transport Model of GW170817-Like Disk Produces a Blue Kilonova text January 2019
Neutron star binary orbits in their host potential: effect on early r-process enrichment 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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