Related papers: Modeling the emission lines from r-process element…
A brief overview of the r-process is given with an emphasis on the observational implications for this process. The conditions required for the major production of the heavy r-process elements (r-elements) with mass numbers A >130 are…
The cosmic origin of the elements heavier than iron has long been uncertain. Theoretical modelling shows that the matter that is expelled in the violent merger of two neutron stars can assemble into heavy elements such as gold and platinum…
The production of about half of the heavy elements found in nature is assigned to a specific astrophysical nucleosynthesis process: the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). Although this idea has been postulated more than six decades…
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…
Stars of ~8-100 solar masses end their lives as core-collapse supernovae (SNe). In the process they emit a powerful burst of neutrinos, produce a variety of elements, and leave behind either a neutron star or a black hole. The wide mass…
We present a review of the possible sources for r-process nuclei. It is known that there is as yet no self-consistent mechanism to provide abundant neutrons for a robust r-process in the neutrino-driven winds from nascent neutron stars. We…
The origin of r-process elements remains unidentified and still puzzles us. The recent discovery of evidence for the ejection of r-process elements from a short-duration gamma-ray burst singled out neutron star mergers (NSMs) as their…
The existence of neutron star mergers has been supported since the discovery of the binary pulsar and the observation of its orbital energy loss, consistent with General Relativity. They are considered nucleosynthesis sites of the rapid…
The origin of the heavy elements in the Universe is not fully determined. Neutron star-black hole (NSBH) and {binary neutron star} (BNS) mergers may both produce heavy elements via rapid neutron-capture (r-process). We use the recent…
The kilonova emission observed following the binary neutron star merger event GW170817 provided the first direct evidence for the synthesis of heavy nuclei through the r-process. The late-time transition in the spectral energy distribution…
A long-standing scientific puzzle has been to explain the origin of the heaviest elements in the Universe and, more particularly, the production of the elements heavier than iron up to uranium. The rapid neutron capture process (or…
The specific mechanism and astrophysical site for the production of half of the elements heavier than iron via rapid neutron capture (r-process) remains to be found. In order to reproduce the abundances of the solar system and of the old…
The determination of heavy element abundances from planetary nebula (PN) spectra provides an exciting opportunity to study the nucleosynthesis occurring in the progenitor asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. We perform post-processing…
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…
The s-process should occur in all but the lower mass progenitor stars of planetary nebulae, and this should be reflected in the chemical composition of the gas which is expelled to create the current planetary nebula shell. Weak forbidden…
Neutron-star mergers were recently confirmed as sites of rapid-neutron-capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis. However, in Galactic chemical evolution models, neutron-star mergers alone cannot reproduce the observed element abundance patterns…
Growing interests in neutron star (NS) mergers as the origin of r-process elements have sprouted since the discovery of evidence for the ejection of these elements from a short-duration gamma-ray burst. The hypothesis of a NS merger origin…
The conditions for the leading r-process site candidate, neutrino-driven winds, can not be reproduced self-consistently in current supernova models. For that reason, we investigate an alternate model involving the mass ejected by fallback…
The heaviest elements in the Universe are synthesized through rapid neutron capture ($r$-process) in extremely neutron rich outflows. Neutron star mergers were established as an important $r$-process source through the multi-messenger…
This manuscript reviews recent progress in our understanding of the nucleosynthesis of medium and heavy elements in supernovae. Recent hydrodynamical models of core-collapse supernovae show that a large amount of proton rich matter is…