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We investigate the early (t < 1 day) kilonova from the neutron star merger by deriving atomic opacities for all the elements from La to Ra (Z = 57 - 88) ionized to the states V - XI. The opacities at high temperatures for the elements with…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-06-07 Smaranika Banerjee , Masaomi Tanaka , Daiji Kato , Gediminas Gaigalas

We present radiative transfer simulations for blue kilonovae hours after neutron star (NS) mergers by performing detailed opacity calculations for the first time. We calculate atomic structures and opacities of highly ionized elements (up…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-09-30 Smaranika Banerjee , Masaomi Tanaka , Kyohei Kawaguchi , Daiji Kato , Gediminas Gaigalas

We have performed r-process calculations for matter ejected dynamically in neutron star mergers based on a complete set of trajectories from a three-dimensional relativistic smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulation. Our calculations…

The merger of two neutron stars produces an outflow of radioactive heavy nuclei. Within a second of merger, the central remnant is expected to also launch a relativistic jet, which shock-heats and disrupts a portion of the radioactive…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-01-20 Hannah Klion , Paul C. Duffell , Daniel Kasen , Eliot Quataert

The merger of neutron star binaries is believed to eject a wide range of heavy elements into the universe. By observing the emission from this ejecta, scientists can probe the ejecta properties (mass, velocity and composition…

Neutron star mergers are today considered a major production site for rapid neutron capture elements. While the bulk of the matter escapes at fast, but non-relativistic velocities (${\sim} 0.2\,c$), a small amount of the dynamically ejected…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-18 Lukas Schnabel , Stephan Rosswog , Friedrich-Karl Thielemann , Moritz Reichert

The observed spectra and light curves of the kilonova produced by the GW170817 binary neutron star merger provide complementary insights, but modeling both the spectral- and time-domain has proven challenging. Here, we model the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-14 Nicholas Vieira , John J. Ruan , Daryl Haggard , Maria R. Drout , Rodrigo Fernández

AAssociation of GW170817/GRB170817A/AT2017gfo provides the first direct evidence for neutron star mergers as significant sources of $r$-process nucleosynthesis. A gamma-ray transient (GRT) would be powered by the radioactive decay of the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-06-22 Meng-Hua Chen , Rui-Chong Hu , En-Wei Liang

We present a coherent study of the impact of neutrino interactions on the r-process element nucleosynthesis and the heating rate produced by the radioactive elements synthesised in the dynamical ejecta of neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS)…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-11-23 I. Kullmann , S. Goriely , O. Just , R. Ardevol-Pulpillo , A. Bauswein , H. -T. Janka

The kilonova associated with the neutron star merger GW170817 provides us with several hints to elucidate the nature of the r-process in the universe. In this article, we inspect the radioactive isotopes that powered the kilonova emission,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-11-06 Shinya Wanajo

In kilonovae, freshly-synthesized $r$-process elements imprint features on optical spectra, as observed in AT2017gfo, the counterpart to the GW170817 binary neutron star merger. However, measuring the $r$-process compositions of the merger…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-12-25 Nicholas Vieira , John J. Ruan , Daryl Haggard , Nicole M. Ford , Maria R. Drout , Rodrigo Fernández

The characteristic rapid rise and decline at optical wavelengths of a kilonova is the product of the low ejecta mass ($\lesssim 0.05 M_\odot$) and high ejecta velocity ($\gtrsim 0.1$c). We show that, even at very early times ($\lesssim 2$…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-08-28 Daniel Brethauer , Daniel Kasen , Raffaella Margutti , Ryan Chornock

In the context of kilonova (KN) modeling, the present work focusses on large-scale atomic data and opacity computations for all heavy elements from Ca to Lr, with a special effort on lanthanides and actinides, for a grid of typical KN…

We present an improved version of the 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code POSSIS to model kilonovae from neutron star mergers, wherein nuclear heating rates, thermalization efficiencies and wavelength-dependent opacities depend on local…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-02-01 Mattia Bulla

Multimessenger observations of the neutron star merger GW170817 and its kilonova proved that neutron star mergers can synthesize large quantities of r-process elements. If neutron star mergers in fact dominate all r-process element…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-09-11 Alexander P. Ji , Maria R. Drout , Terese T. Hansen

The coalescence of compact objects are a promising astrophysical sources of gravitational wave (GW) signals. The ejection of r-process material from such mergers may lead to a radioactively-powered electromagnetic counterpart which, if…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-15 Jennifer Barnes , Daniel Kasen

The majority of existing results for the kilonova (or macronova) emission from material ejected during a neutron-star (NS) merger is based on (quasi-)one-zone models or manually constructed toy-model ejecta configurations. In this study we…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-05-06 Oliver Just , Ina Kullmann , Stephane Goriely , Andreas Bauswein , Hans-Thomas Janka , Christine E. Collins

We investigate beta-interactions of free nucleons and their impact on the electron fraction (Y_e) and r-process nucleosynthesis in ejecta characteristic of binary neutron star mergers (BNSMs). For that we employ trajectories from a…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-08-19 Stephane Goriely , Andreas Bauswein , Oliver Just , Else Pllumbi , Hans-Thomas Janka

We study the nucleosyntheses of the light elements 7Li and 11B and the r-process elements in Type II supernovae from the point of view of supernova neutrinos and Galactic chemical evolution. We investigate the influence of the luminosity…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 T. Yoshida , M. Terasawa , T. Kajino , K. Sumiyoshi