Californium-254 and Kilonova Light Curves

Zhu, Y.; Wollaeger, R. T.; Vassh, N.; Surman, R.; Sprouse, T. M.; Mumpower, M. R.; Möller, P.; McLaughlin, G. C.; Korobkin, O.; Kawano, T.; Jaffke, P. J.; Holmbeck, E. M.; Fryer, C. L.; Even, W. P.; Couture, A. J.; Barnes, J.

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aad5de

Title: Californium-254 and Kilonova Light Curves

Journal Article · 14 August 2018 · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aad5de · OSTI ID:1484657

^[1];

^[2];

^[3];

^[4];

^[3];

^[5];

^[6];

^[5];

^[2];

^[7];

^[5];

^[8];

^[5];

^[9]

Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States); Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE)
Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE); Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States). Dept. of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences; Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE); Southern Utah Univ., Cedar City, UT (United States)
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Columbia Astrophysics Lab.

Neutron star mergers o er unique conditions for the creation of the heavy elements and additionally provide a testbed for our understanding of this synthesis known as the r-process. We have performed dynamical nucleosynthesis calculations and identi ed a single isotope, ²⁵⁴Cf, which has a particularly high impact on the brightness of electromagnetic transients associated with mergers on the order of 15 to 250 days. This is due to the anomalously long half-life of this isotope and the e ciency of ssion thermalization compared to other nuclear channels. We estimate the ssion fragment yield of this nucleus and outline the astrophysical conditions under which ²⁵⁴Cf has the greatest impact to the light curve. Future observations in the middle-IR which are bright during this regime could indicate the production of actinide nucleosynthesis.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 1484657

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--18-25559

Journal Information:: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online), Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online) Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 863; ISSN 2041-8213

Publisher:: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (65)

Kilonovae Metzger, Brian D. Living Reviews in Relativity, Vol. 20, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41114-017-0006-z	journal	May 2017
Spontaneous fission half lives of 254Cf, 255Fm, and 250Cf Phillips, L.; Gatti, R. C.; Brandt, R. Journal of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Vol. 25, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1902(63)80125-6	journal	September 1963
Nuclear-charge distribution and delayed-neutron yields for thermal-neutron-induced fission of 235U, 233U, and 239Pu and for spontaneous fission of 252Cf Wahl, Arthur C. Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables, Vol. 39, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-640X(88)90016-2	journal	May 1988
The alpha decay of 253Cf and 254Cf Bemis, C. E.; Halperin, J. Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 121, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0375-9474(68)90431-4	journal	December 1968
R-process nucleosynthesis and nuclei far from the region of β-stability Kodama, Takeshi; Takahashi, Kohji Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 239, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0375-9474(75)90381-4	journal	March 1975
Simultaneous investigation of fission fragments and neutrons in 252Cf (SF) Budtz-Jørgensen, C.; Knitter, H. -H. Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 490, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0375-9474(88)90508-8	journal	December 1988
Investigation of the far asymmetric region in 252Cf(sf) Hambsch, F. -J.; Oberstedt, S. Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 617, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0375-9474(97)00040-7	journal	May 1997
Systematics of charge distribution studies in low-energy fission of actinides Naik, H.; Dange, S. P.; Singh, R. J. Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 612, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0375-9474(97)80002-4	journal	January 1997
Nuclear ground-state masses and deformations: FRDM(2012) Möller, P.; Sierk, A. J.; Ichikawa, T. Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables, Vol. 109-110 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adt.2015.10.002	journal	May 2016
Nuclear properties for astrophysical and radioactive-ion-beam applications (II) Möller, P.; Mumpower, M. R.; Kawano, T. Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables, Vol. 125 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adt.2018.03.003	journal	January 2019
ENDF/B-VIII.0: The 8 th Major Release of the Nuclear Reaction Data Library with CIELO-project Cross Sections, New Standards and Thermal Scattering Data Brown, D. A.; Chadwick, M. B.; Capote, R. Nuclear Data Sheets, Vol. 148 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2018.02.001	journal	February 2018
The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817 Troja, E.; Piro, L.; van Eerten, H. Nature, Vol. 551, Issue 7678 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24290	journal	October 2017
Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational-wave event Kasen, Daniel; Metzger, Brian; Barnes, Jennifer Nature, Vol. 551, Issue 7678 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24453	journal	October 2017
Supernovae and Californium 254 Baade, W.; Burbidge, G. R.; Hoyle, F. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 68 https://doi.org/10.1086/126941	journal	August 1956
Black-hole-neutron-star collisions Lattimer, J. M.; Schramm, D. N. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 192 https://doi.org/10.1086/181612	journal	September 1974
The Physics of Type Ia Supernova Light Curves. I. Analytic Results and Time Dependence Pinto, Philip A.; Eastman, Ronald G. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 530, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/308376	journal	February 2000
Transient Events from Neutron Star Mergers Li, Li-Xin; Paczyński, Bohdan The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 507, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1086/311680	journal	November 1998
Nucleosynthesis in the Outflow from Gamma‐Ray Burst Accretion Disks Surman, R.; McLaughlin, G. C.; Hix, W. R. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 643, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/501116	journal	June 2006
OPACITIES AND SPECTRA OF THE r -PROCESS EJECTA FROM NEUTRON STAR MERGERS Kasen, Daniel; Badnell, N. R.; Barnes, Jennifer The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 774, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/774/1/25	journal	August 2013
Detectability of compact binary merger macronovae Rosswog, S.; Feindt, U.; Korobkin, O. Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol. 34, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/aa68a9	journal	April 2017
The NUBASE2016 evaluation of nuclear properties Audi, G.; Kondev, F. G.; Wang, Meng Chinese Physics C, Vol. 41, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-1137/41/3/030001	journal	March 2017
The AME2016 atomic mass evaluation (II). Tables, graphs and references Wang, Meng; Audi, G.; Kondev, F. G. Chinese Physics C, Vol. 41, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-1137/41/3/030003	journal	March 2017
PRODUCTION OF ALL THE r -PROCESS NUCLIDES IN THE DYNAMICAL EJECTA OF NEUTRON STAR MERGERS Wanajo, Shinya; Sekiguchi, Yuichiro; Nishimura, Nobuya The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 789, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/789/2/L39	journal	June 2014
Radioactive decay products in neutron star merger ejecta: heating efficiency and γ-ray emission Hotokezaka, K.; Wanajo, S.; Tanaka, M. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 459, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw404	journal	March 2016
Impact of ejecta morphology and composition on the electromagnetic signatures of neutron star mergers Wollaeger, Ryan T.; Korobkin, Oleg; Fontes, Christopher J. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 478, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1018	journal	April 2018
Transplutonium Elements in Thermonuclear Test Debris Fields, P. R.; Studier, M. H.; Diamond, H. Physical Review, Vol. 102, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.102.180	journal	April 1956
Mass and Energy Distributions in the Spontaneous Fission of Some Heavy Isotopes Brandt, Reinhard; Thompson, Stanley G.; Gatti, Raymond C. Physical Review, Vol. 131, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.131.2617	journal	September 1963
Systematical law of spontaneous fission half-lives of heavy nuclei Xu, Chang; Ren, Zhongzhou Physical Review C, Vol. 71, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.71.014309	journal	January 2005
Towards a prediction of fission cross sections on the basis of microscopic nuclear inputs Goriely, S.; Hilaire, S.; Koning, A. J. Physical Review C, Vol. 79, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.79.024612	journal	February 2009
Production of heavy and superheavy neutron-rich nuclei in neutron capture processes Zagrebaev, V. I.; Karpov, A. V.; Mishustin, I. N. Physical Review C, Vol. 84, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.84.044617	journal	October 2011
Prompt neutron multiplicity in correlation with fragments from spontaneous fission of Cf 252 Göök, A.; Hambsch, F. -J.; Vidali, M. Physical Review C, Vol. 90, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.90.064611	journal	December 2014
Fission barriers at the end of the chart of the nuclides Möller, Peter; Sierk, Arnold J.; Ichikawa, Takatoshi Physical Review C, Vol. 91, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.91.024310	journal	February 2015
Neutron- γ competition for β -delayed neutron emission Mumpower, M. R.; Kawano, T.; Möller, P. Physical Review C, Vol. 94, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.94.064317	journal	December 2016
Fission properties of superheavy nuclei for r -process calculations Giuliani, Samuel A.; Martínez-Pinedo, Gabriel; Robledo, Luis M. Physical Review C, Vol. 97, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.97.034323	journal	March 2018
Hauser-Feshbach fission fragment de-excitation with calculated macroscopic-microscopic mass yields Jaffke, Patrick; Möller, Peter; Talou, Patrick Physical Review C, Vol. 97, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.97.034608	journal	March 2018
Matter-neutrino resonance transitions above a neutron star merger remnant Zhu, Y. L.; Perego, A.; McLaughlin, G. C. Physical Review D, Vol. 94, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.105006	journal	November 2016
Dense plasma temperature equilibration in the binary collision approximation Gericke, D. O.; Murillo, M. S.; Schlanges, M. Physical Review E, Vol. 65, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.65.036418	journal	March 2002
Brownian Shape Motion on Five-Dimensional Potential-Energy Surfaces:Nuclear Fission-Fragment Mass Distributions Randrup, Jørgen; Möller, Peter Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.132503	journal	March 2011
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.161101	journal	October 2017
Illuminating gravitational waves: A concordant picture of photons from a neutron star merger Kasliwal, M. M.; Nakar, E.; Singer, L. P. Science, Vol. 358, Issue 6370 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9455	journal	October 2017
Have superheavy elements been produced in nature? Petermann, I.; Langanke, K.; Martínez-Pinedo, G. The European Physical Journal A, Vol. 48, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2012-12122-6	journal	September 2012
Transplutonium Elements in Thermonuclear Test Debris Fields, P. R.; Studier, M. H.; Diamond, H. World Scientific Series in 20th Century Chemistry https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812795953_0017	book	May 1994
Black-Hole-Neutron-Star Collisions Lattimer, James M.; Schramm, David N. The Big Bang and Other Explosions in Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812831538_0073	book	June 1996
Decay Properties and Stability of Heaviest Elements Karpov, A. V.; Zagrebaev, V. I.; Martinez Palenzuela, Y. International Journal of Modern Physics E, Vol. 21, Issue 02 https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218301312500139	journal	February 2012
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D. College Park : American Physical Society https://doi.org/10.15488/4798	other	January 2017
The Emergence of a Lanthanide-rich Kilonova Following the Merger of Two Neutron Stars Tanvir, Nr; Levan, Aj; González-Fernández, C. Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.23462	text	January 2017
Radioactivity and Thermalization in the Ejecta of Compact Object Mergers and Their Impact on Kilonova Light Curves Barnes, Jennifer; Kasen, Daniel; Wu, Meng-Ru The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 829, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/829/2/110	journal	September 2016
Properties of Kilonovae from Dynamical and Post-merger Ejecta of Neutron Star Mergers Tanaka, Masaomi; Kato, Daiji; Gaigalas, Gediminas The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 852, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaa0cb	journal	January 2018
The Emergence of a Lanthanide-rich Kilonova Following the Merger of Two Neutron Stars Tanvir, N. R.; Levan, A. J.; González-Fernández, C. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 848, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa90b6	journal	October 2017
Brownian shape motion on five-dimensional potential-energy surfaces: Nuclear fission-fragment mass distributions Randrup, Jorgen; Moller, Peter arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1103.0535	text	January 2011
Have Superheavy Elements been Produced in Nature? Petermann, I.; Langanke, K.; Martínez-Pinedo, G. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1207.3432	text	January 2012
Radioactivity and thermalization in the ejecta of compact object mergers and their impact on kilonova light curves Barnes, Jennifer; Kasen, Daniel; Wu, Meng-Ru arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1605.07218	text	January 2016
Matter Neutrino Resonance Transitions above a Neutron Star Merger Remnant Zhu, Yong-Lin; Perego, Albino; McLaughlin, Gail C. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1607.04671	text	January 2016
Detectability of compact binary merger macronovae Rosswog, S.; Feindt, U.; Korobkin, O. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1611.09822	text	January 2016
Fission properties of superheavy nuclei for r-process calculations Giuliani, Samuel A.; Martinez-Pinedo, Gabriel; Robledo, Luis M. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1704.00554	text	January 2017
Impact of ejecta morphology and composition on the electromagnetic signatures of neutron star mergers Wollaeger, Ryan T.; Korobkin, Oleg; Fontes, Christopher J. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1705.07084	text	January 2017
The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational wave event GW 170817 Troja, E.; Piro, L.; van Eerten, H. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.05433	text	January 2017
Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger Kasliwal, M. M.; Nakar, E.; Singer, L. P. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.05436	text	January 2017
Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational wave event Kasen, Daniel; Metzger, Brian; Barnes, Jennifer arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.05463	text	January 2017
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral Collaboration, The LIGO Scientific; Collaboration, The Virgo arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.05832	text	January 2017
Hauser-Feshbach fission fragment de-excitation with calculated macroscopic-microscopic mass yields Jaffke, Patrick; Moller, Peter; Talou, Patrick arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1712.05511	text	January 2017
Nucleosynthesis in the Outflow from Gamma Ray Burst Accretion Disks Surman, R.; McLaughlin, G. C.; Hix, W. R. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0509365	text	January 2005
Transient Events from Neutron Star Mergers Li, Li-Xin; Paczyński, Bohdan arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9807272	text	January 1998
GW170817: Observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D. American Physical Society https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-147231	text	January 2017
ENDF/B-VIII.0: The 8 th Major Release of the Nuclear Reaction Data Library with CIELO-project Cross Sections, New Standards and Thermal Scattering Data Brown, D. A.; Chadwick, M. B.; Capote, R. Karlsruhe https://doi.org/10.5445/ir/1000081589	text	January 2018

Cited By (14)

Kilonovae Metzger, Brian D. Living Reviews in Relativity, Vol. 23, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41114-019-0024-0	journal	December 2019
Kilonovae Metzger, Brian D. Living Reviews in Relativity, Vol. 23, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41114-019-0024-0	journal	December 2019
A luminosity distribution for kilonovae based on short gamma-ray burst afterglows Ascenzi, Stefano; Coughlin, Michael W.; Dietrich, Tim Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 486, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz891	journal	March 2019
Fingerprints of Heavy-Element Nucleosynthesis in the Late-Time Lightcurves of Kilonovae Wu, Meng-Ru; Barnes, J.; Martínez-Pinedo, G. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 122, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.122.062701	journal	February 2019
Colloquium : Superheavy elements: Oganesson and beyond Giuliani, S. A.; Matheson, Z.; Nazarewicz, W. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 91, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/revmodphys.91.011001	journal	January 2019
Physical Conditions for the r -process. I. Radioactive Energy Sources of Kilonovae Wanajo, Shinya The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 868, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aae0f2	journal	November 2018
β -delayed Fission in r -process Nucleosynthesis Mumpower, M. R.; Kawano, T.; Sprouse, T. M. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 869, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaeaca	journal	December 2018
Actinide Production in the Neutron-rich Ejecta of a Neutron Star Merger Holmbeck, Erika M.; Sprouse, Trevor M.; Mumpower, Matthew R. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 870, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaefef	journal	December 2018
Neutron Star Mergers Might Not Be the Only Source of r -process Elements in the Milky Way Côté, Benoit; Eichler, Marius; Arcones, Almudena The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 875, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab10db	journal	April 2019
Probing the Production of Actinides under Different r-process Conditions Eichler, M.; Sayar, W.; Arcones, A. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 879, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab24cf	journal	July 2019
Finding the Remnants of the Milky Way's Last Neutron Star Mergers Wu, Meng-Ru; Banerjee, Projjwal; Metzger, Brian D. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 880, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab2593	journal	July 2019
Actinide-rich and Actinide-poor r -process-enhanced Metal-poor Stars Do Not Require Separate r -process Progenitors Holmbeck, Erika M.; Frebel, Anna; McLaughlin, G. C. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 881, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab2a01	journal	August 2019
Physical conditions for the r-process I. radioactive energy sources of kilonovae Wanajo, Shinya arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1808.03763	text	January 2018
Actinide-rich and Actinide-poor $r$-Process Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars do not Require Separate $r$-Process Progenitors Holmbeck, Erika M.; Frebel, Anna; McLaughlin, G. C. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1904.02139	text	January 2019

Similar Records

Actinide signatures in low electron fraction kilonova ejecta

Journal Article · 2024 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · OSTI ID:2484248

Pognan, Quentin; Wu, Meng-Ru; Martínez-Pinedo, Gabriel; +4 more

Separation and Purification of Berkelium-249 and Einsteinium-254

Technical Report · 2020 · OSTI ID:1615813

Boll, Rose A.; Dyer, T. A.; Ezold, Julie G.; +7 more

Fission cross-section measurements of sup 247 Cm, sup 254 Es, and sup 250 Cf from 0. 1 eV to 80 keV

Journal Article · 1991 · Nuclear Science and Engineering; (United States) · OSTI ID:5302672

Danon, Y; Slovacek, R E; Block, R C; +3 more

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
actinides
californium
mergers
neutron stars
nucleosynthesis

Title: Californium-254 and Kilonova Light Curves

Citation Formats

References (65)

Cited By (14)

Similar Records

Related Subjects