Related papers: The study of r-process nucleosynthesis in binary n…
There has been significant progress in the understanding of the r-process over the last ten years. The conditions required for this process have been examined in terms of the parameters for adiabatic expansion from high temperature and…
We explore heavy-element nucleosynthesis by rapid neutron capture (r-process) in the decompressing ejecta from the surface of a neutron star. The decompression is triggered by a violent phase transition to strange quark matter (quark-nova…
Neutrinos from dense environments are connected to the longstanding open questions of how massive stars explode and what are the sites where $r$-process elements are made. Flavor evolution and neutrino properties can influence…
There are many candidate sites of the r-process: core-collapse supernovae (including rare magnetorotational core-collapse supernovae), neutron star mergers, and neutron star/black hole mergers. The chemical enrichment of…
The recent detection of a binary neutron star merger and the clear evidence for the decay of radioactive material observed in this event have, after sixty years of effort, provided an astrophysical site for the rapid neutron-capture ($r$-)…
The origin of the elements is a fascinating question that scientists have been trying to answer for the last seven decades. The formation of light elements in the primordial universe and heavier elements in astrophysical sources occurs…
The chemical abundances of elements such as barium and the lanthanides are essential to understand the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in the early Universe as well as the contribution of different neutron capture processes (for example…
The rapid-neutron capture process ($r$ process) is identified as the producer of about 50\% of elements heavier than iron. This process requires an astrophysical environment with an extremely high neutron flux over a short amount of time…
Observations of GW170817 strongly suggest that binary neutron star (BNS) mergers produce rapid neutron-capture nucleosynthesis (r-process) elements. However, it remains an open question whether these mergers can account for all the…
To explain the high observed abundances of r-process elements in local ultra- faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies, we perform cosmological zoom simulations that include r-process production from neutron star mergers (NSMs). We model star-formation…
We examine the r-process in the neutrino-driven proto-neutron-star (PNS) wind of core-collapse supernovae in light of the recent findings of massive neutron stars in binaries as well as of an indication of neutron-richness in the PNS ejecta…
We consider $r$-process nucleosynthesis in outflows from black hole accretion discs formed in double neutron star and neutron star -- black hole mergers. These outflows, powered by angular momentum transport processes and nuclear…
Observations of metal-poor stars indicate that at least two different nucleosynthesis sites contribute to the production of r-process elements. One site is responsible for the production of light r-process elements Z<~50 while the other…
We investigate systematically the dynamical mass ejection, r-process nucleosynthesis, and properties of electromagnetic counterparts of neutron-star (NS) mergers in dependence on the uncertain properties of the nuclear equation of state…
We examine the Pb and Th abundances in 27 metal-poor stars (-3.1 < [Fe/H] < -1.4) whose very heavy metal (Z > 56) enrichment was produced only by the rapid (r-) nucleosynthesis process. New abundances are derived from HST/STIS, Keck/HIRES,…
Understanding the origin of the elements has been a decades long pursuit, with many open questions still remaining. Old stars found in the Milky Way and its dwarf satellite galaxies can provide answers because they preserve clean elemental…
Expulsion of neutron-rich matter following the merger of neutron star (NS) binaries is crucial to the radioactively-powered electromagnetic counterparts of these events and to their relevance as sources of r-process nucleosynthesis. Here we…
Neutron star mergers produce $r$-process elements, with yields that are sensitive to the kinematic and thermodynamic properties of the ejecta. These ejecta properties are potentially affected by dynamically-important feedback from…
Abundance observations indicate the presence of rapid-neutron capture (i.e., r-process) elements in old Galactic halo and globular cluster stars. These observations demonstrate that the earliest generations of stars in the Galaxy,…
We show that a minimum-mass neutron star undergoes delayed explosion after mass removal from its surface. We couple the Newtonian hydrodynamics to a nuclear reaction network of $\sim4500$ isotopes to study the nucleosynthesis and neutrino…