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Related papers: Superheavy Elements in Kilonovae

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Observations of the kilonova from a neutron star merger event GW170817 opened a way to directly study r-process nucleosynthesis by neutron star mergers. It is, however, challenging to identify the individual elements in the kilonova spectra…

A central question regarding neutron star mergers is whether they are able to produce all the r-process elements, from first to third peak. The high abundances of first-peak elements (atomic number $Z \sim 31-40$) in the solar composition…

The first neutron star (NS) merger observed by advanced LIGO and Virgo, GW170817, and its fireworks of electromagnetic counterparts across the entire electromagnetic spectrum marked the beginning of multi-messenger astronomy and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-12-24 Daniel M. Siegel

Long-duration GRB 211211A, which lacked an associated supernova at such a low redshift $z=0.076$, but was associated with a possible kilonova emission, has attracted great attention. The neutron star-white dwarf (NS-WD) merger is proposed…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-07-28 Xiao-Xuan Liu , Hou-Jun Lü , Qiu-Hong Chen , Zhao-Wei Du , En-Wei Liang

The discovery of the kilonova (KN) AT 2017gfo, accompanying the gravitational wave event GW170817, provides crucial insight into the synthesis of heavy elements during binary neutron star (BNS) mergers. Following this landmark event,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-04-22 Zhengyan Liu , Ji-an Jiang , Wen Zhao

Fast material ejected dynamically over $<10$ ms during the merger of a binary neutron-star (BNS) system can give rise to distinctive electromagnetic counterparts to the system's gravitational-wave emission that can serve as a "smoking gun"…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-03-23 Luciano Combi , Daniel M. Siegel

In the first work of this series, we adopt a GW170817-like, viewing-angle-dependent kilonova model and the standard afterglow model with the lightcurve distribution based on the properties of cosmological short gamma-ray bursts afterglows…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-08-30 Jin-Ping Zhu , Yuan-Pei Yang , Bing Zhang , He Gao , Yun-Wei Yu

Infrared emission lines arising from transitions between fine structure levels of heavy elements are expected to produce kilonova nebular emission. For the kilonova in GW170817, strong emission at 4.5 ${\rm \mu m}$ at late times was…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-08-03 Kenta Hotokezaka , Masaomi Tanaka , Daiji Kato , Gediminas Gaigalas

We present simulated observations to assess the ability of LSST and the WFD survey to detect and characterize kilonovae - the optical emission associated with binary neutron star (and possibly black hole - neutron star) mergers. We expand…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-04-03 P. S. Cowperthwaite , V. A. Villar , D. M. Scolnic , E. Berger

With the forth observing run of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA gravitational-wave network, which enabled the discovery of the kilonova (KN) counterpart to GW170817, ending with no new confirmed neutron star mergers, the intrinsic rate of these events…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-02-17 Haille M. L. Perkins , Gautham Narayan , Brian D. Fields , Ved G. Shah , Genevieve Schroeder

A kilonova, the electromagnetic emission produced by compact binary mergers, is formed through a delicate interplay of physical processes, involving r-process nucleosynthesis and interactions between heavy elements and photons through…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-05-20 Donggeun Tak , Z. Lucas Uhm , James H. Gillanders

The merger of two neutron stars (NSs) or a neutron star and a black hole (BH) produces a radioactively-powered transient known as a kilonova, first observed accompanying the gravitational wave event GW170817. While kilonovae are frequently…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-03-17 Siva Darbha , Daniel Kasen

The gravitational wave event GW170817 associated with the short gamma-ray burst (GRB) 170817A confirms that binary neutron star (BNS) mergers are one of the origins of short GRBs. The associated kilonova emission, radioactively powered by…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-10-31 Zhi-Qiu Huang , Liang-Duan Liu , Xiang-Yu Wang , Zi-Gao Dai

The observations of GW170817/AT2017gfo have provided us with evidence that binary neutron star mergers are sites of $r$-process nucleosynthesis. However, the observed signatures in the spectra of GW170817/AT2017gfo have not been fully…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-08-25 Nanae Domoto , Masaomi Tanaka , Daiji Kato , Kyohei Kawaguchi , Kenta Hotokezaka , Shinya Wanajo

We present Very Large Array (VLA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array ALMA radio observations of GW\,170817, the first Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)/Virgo gravitational wave (GW) event from a…

Neutron star (NS) mergers where both stars have negligible spins are commonly considered as the most likely ``standard'' case. In globular clusters, however, the majority of NSs have been spun up to millisecond (ms) periods and, based on…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-02-13 S. Rosswog , P. Diener , F. Torsello , T. M. Tauris , N. Sarin

Black hole - neutron star (BH-NS) mergers are a major target for ground-based gravitational wave (GW) observatories. A merger can also produce an electromagnetic counterpart (a kilonova) if it ejects neutron-rich matter that assembles into…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-08-26 Siva Darbha , Daniel Kasen , Francois Foucart , Daniel J. Price

With GW170817 being the only multimessenger gravitational wave (GW) event with an associated kilonova detected so far, there exists a pressing need for realistic estimation of the GW localization uncertainties and rates, as well as…

We present detailed simulations of black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) mergers kilonova and gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow and kilonova luminosity function, and discuss the detectability of electromagnetic (EM) counterpart in connection with…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-08-12 Jin-Ping Zhu , Shichao Wu , Yuan-Pei Yang , Bing Zhang , He Gao , Yun-Wei Yu , Zhuo Li , Zhoujian Cao , Liang-Duan Liu , Yan Huang , Xing-Han Zhang