DUST FORMATION IN MACRONOVAE

Journal Article · Tue Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/789/1/L6· OSTI ID:22365753

Takami, Hajime; Ioka, Kunihito ^[1]; Nozawa, Takaya ^[2]

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1. Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, KEK, 1-1, Oho, Tsukuba 305-0801 (Japan)
2. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)

We examine dust formation in macronovae (as known as kilonovae), which are the bright ejecta of neutron star binary mergers and one of the leading sites of r-process nucleosynthesis. In light of information about the first macronova candidate associated with GRB 130603B, we find that dust grains of r-process elements have difficulty forming because of the low number density of the r-process atoms, while carbon or elements lighter than iron can condense into dust if they are abundant. Dust grains absorb emission from ejecta with an opacity even greater than that of the r-process elements, and re-emit photons at infrared wavelengths. Such dust emission can potentially account for macronovae without r-process nucleosynthesis as an alternative model. This dust scenario predicts a spectrum with fewer features than the r-process model and day-scale optical-to-ultraviolet emission.

• OSTI ID: 22365753
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 789; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BINARY STARS
CARBON
COSMIC DUST
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
IRON
NEUTRON STARS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
OPACITY
POTENTIALS
R PROCESS
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VISIBLE RADIATION