English

The intermediate r-process in core-collapse supernovae driven by the magneto-rotational instability

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2017-02-16 v2 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

We investigated r-process nucleosynthesis in magneto-rotational supernovae, based on a new explosion mechanism induced by the magneto-rotational instability. A series of axisymmetric magneto-hydrodynamical simulations with detailed microphysics including neutrino heating is performed, numerically resolving the magneto-rotational instability. Neutrino-heating dominated explosions, enhanced by magnetic fields, showed mildly neutron-rich ejecta producing nuclei up to A130A \sim 130 (i.e. the weak r-process), while explosion models with stronger magnetic fields reproduce a solar-like r-process pattern. More commonly seen abundance patterns in our models are in between the weak and regular r-process, producing lighter and intermediate mass nuclei. These {\it intermediate r-processes} exhibit a variety of abundance distributions, compatible with several abundance patterns in r-process-enhanced metal-poor stars. The amount of Eu ejecta 105M\sim 10^{-5} M_\odot in magnetically-driven jets agrees with predicted values in the chemical evolution of early galaxies. In contrast, neutrino-heating dominated explosions have a significant amount of Fe (56Ni^{56}{\rm Ni}) and Zn, comparable to regular supernovae and hypernovae, respectively. These results indicate magneto-rotational supernovae can produce a wide range of heavy nuclei from iron-group to r-process elements, depending on the explosion dynamics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1611.02280,
  title  = {The intermediate r-process in core-collapse supernovae driven by the magneto-rotational instability},
  author = {Nobuya Nishimura and Hidetomo Sawai and Tomoya Takiwaki and Shoichi Yamada and Friedrich-Karl Thielemann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1611.02280},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

8 pages, 5 figures, ApJL, accepted; v2: text and some plots are revised based on referee's comments, but the main conclusions remain the same

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