Nucleosynthesis in the ejecta of neutron star mergers

Journal Article · Fri May 02 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4874080· OSTI ID:22280471

Wanajo, Shinya ^[1]; Sekiguchi, Yuichiro; Kiuchi, Kenta; Shibata, Masaru ^[2]; Nishimura, Nobuya ^[3]; Kyutoku, Koutarou ^[4]

---

1. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)
2. Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502 (Japan)
3. Astrophysics Group, iEPSAM, Keele University, Keele, ST5 5BG (United Kingdom)
4. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (United States)

We present, for the first time, the result of nucleosynthesis calculations based on the fully general-relativistic simulation of a NS-NS merger with approximate neutrino transport taken into account. It is found that the bulk of the dynamical ejecta are appreciably shock-heated and neutrino-processed, resulting in a wide range of electron fraction, Y{sub e} ∼ 0.1-0.4. The mass-averaged abundance distribution of calculated nucleosynthesis yields is in remarkable agreement with the full-mass range (A ≈ 90-240) of the solar r-process curve. This implies, if our model is representative of such events, that the dynamical ejecta of NS-NS mergers can be the origin of the Galactic r-process nuclei.

• OSTI ID: 22280471
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 1594; ISSN 0094-243X; ISSN APCPCS
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMIC ELECTRONS
COSMIC NEUTRINOS
COSMOLOGY
ELEMENT ABUNDANCE
MILKY WAY
NEUTRON STARS
NUCLEAR REACTION YIELD
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
R PROCESS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE