Related papers: KilonovAE: Exploring Kilonova Spectral Features wi…
We examine the impact of input neodymium (Nd) atomic data on the light curves and spectra of kilonovae, probing the sensitivity of kilonova observables to the atomic physics of this important lanthanide element. We use the SuperNu Monte…
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…
The spectral features in the optical/near-infrared counterparts of neutron star mergers (kilonovae, KNe), evolve dramatically on hour timescales. To examine the spectral evolution we compile a temporal series complete at all observed epochs…
The first binary neutron star merger, GW170817, was accompanied by a radioactivity-powered optical/infrared transient called a kilonova. To date, no compelling kilonova has been found during optical surveys of the sky, independent of…
Gravitational waves were discovered with the detection of binary black hole mergers and they should also be detectable from lower mass neutron star mergers. These are predicted to eject material rich in heavy radioactive isotopes that can…
The AT2017gfo kilonova transient remains a unique multi-messenger event thanks to its proximity (z=0.00987) and the possibility to investigate time-resolved spectra, providing evidence of r-process nucleosynthesis. The kilonova signal was…
With the epochal first detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star (NS) merger with the GW170817 event, and its direct confirmation that NS-NS mergers are significant sources of the of the r-process nucleosynthesis of heavy…
On the 17th of August, 2017 came the simultaneous detections of GW170817, a gravitational wave that originated from the coalescence of two neutron stars, along with the gamma-ray burst GRB170817A, and the kilonova counterpart AT2017gfo.…
One of the most promising electromagnetic signatures of compact object mergers are kilonovae: approximately isotropic radioactively-powered transients that peak days to weeks post-merger. Key uncertainties in modeling kilonovae include the…
We perform radiative transfer simulations for kilonova in various situations, including the cases of prompt collapse to a black hole from neutron-star mergers, high-velocity ejecta possibly accelerated by magnetars, and a black hole-neutron…
Kilonovae are the electromagnetic transients created by the radioactive decay of freshly synthesized elements in the environment surrounding a neutron star merger. To study the fundamental physics in these complex environments, kilonova…
Binary neutron star mergers are thought to be one of the dominant sites of production for rapid neutron capture elements, including platinum and gold. Since the discovery of the binary neutron star merger GW170817, and its associated…
Coalescence of neutron stars gives rise to kilonova, thermal emission powered by radioactive decays of freshly synthesized r-process nuclei. Although observational properties are largely affected by bound-bound opacities of r-process…
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…
The Wide-Field Infrared Transient Explorer (WINTER) is a new 1 $\text{deg}^2$ seeing-limited time-domain survey instrument designed for dedicated near-infrared follow-up of kilonovae from binary neutron star (BNS) and neutron star-black…
We present a cadence optimization strategy to unveil a large population of kilonovae using optical imaging alone. These transients are generated during binary neutron star and potentially neutron star-black hole mergers and are…
We investigate the kilonova emission resulting from outflows produced in a three-dimensional (3D) general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulation of a hypermassive neutron star (HMNS) remnant. We map the outflows into the FLASH…
The discovery of GW170817 and GRB 170817A in tandem with AT 2017gfo cemented the connection between neutron star mergers, short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and kilonovae. To investigate short GRB observations in the context of diverse kilonova…
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…
The AT2017gfo kilonova counterpart of the binary neutron star merger event GW170817 was characterized by an early-time bright peak in optical and UV bands. Such blue kilonova is commonly interpreted as a signature of weak $r$-process…