The Emergence of a Lanthanide-rich Kilonova Following the Merger of Two Neutron Stars

Tanvir, N. R.; Levan, A. J.; González-Fernández, C.; Korobkin, Oleg; Mandel, Ilya; Rosswog, Stephan; Hjorth, J.; D’Avanzo, P.; Fruchter, A. S.; Fryer, Chris L.; Kangas, T.; Milvang-Jensen, B.; Rosetti, S.; Steeghs, D.; Wollaeger, Ryan; Cano, Z.; Copperwheat, C. M.; Covino, S.; D’Elia, V.; Postigo, A. de Ugarte; Evans, P. A.; Even, Wesley; Fairhurst, S.; Jaimes, R. Figuera; Fontes, Christopher J.; Fujii, Yuri I.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Gompertz, B.; Greiner, J.; Hodosán, Gabriella; Irwin, M. J.; Jakobsson, P.; Jørgensen, U. G.; Канн, Д. А.; Lyman, J. D.; Malesani, D.; McMahon, R. G.; Melandri, A.; O’Brien, P. T.; Osborne, J. P.; Palazzi, E.; Perley, D. A.; Pian, E.; Piranomonte, S.; Rabus, M.; Rol, E.; Rowlinson, A.; Schulze, S.; Sutton, P. J.; Thöne, C. C.; Ulaczyk, K.; Watson, Derrick G.; Wiersema, K.; Wijers, R. A. M. J.

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa90b6

Cited by 635 publications

(528 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…For instance, the detection of a short gamma ray burst (GRB) 1.7 seconds after GW170817 [24][25][26], and subsequent kilonova [27][28][29][30][31][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44], confirmed that BNS mergers are a progenitor of these events. Lanthanide signatures in the kilonova light curves also showed BNS mergers to be a major site for nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than iron [40,44,47,48]. Furthermore the measurements of the EM redshift and, from the GW signal, the luminosity distance, allowed an independent estimate of the Hubble constant to be made [49], thus demonstrating a thirty year old prediction [50].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

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Localization of binary neutron star mergers with second and third generation gravitational-wave detectors

Mills¹,

Tiwari²,

Fairhurst³

2018

Phys. Rev. D

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The observation of gravitational wave signals from binary black hole and binary neutron star mergers has established the field of gravitational wave astronomy. It is expected that future networks of gravitational wave detectors will possess great potential in probing various aspects of astronomy. An important consideration for successive improvement of current detectors or establishment on new sites is knowledge of the minimum number of detectors required to perform precision astronomy. We attempt to answer this question by assessing the ability of future detector networks to detect and localize binary neutron stars mergers on the sky. Good localization ability is crucial for many of the scientific goals of gravitational wave astronomy, such as electromagnetic follow-up, measuring the properties of compact binaries throughout cosmic history, and cosmology. We find that although two detectors at improved sensitivity are sufficient to get a substantial increase in the number of observed signals, at least three detectors of comparable sensitivity are required to localize majority of the signals, typically to within around 10 deg 2 -adequate for follow-up with most wide field of view optical telescopes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Taking our fiducial kilonova model, the current generation of wide-field telescopes, such as DECam [29], Pan-STARRS [39] and VISTA [40], which have limiting magnitudes around 22 would be able to observe kilonova emission to z ≈ 0.1 or a luminosity distance of 400 Mpc. The results in Figs.…”

Section: Implication For Em Follow-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

Localization of binary neutron star mergers with second and third generation gravitational-wave detectors

Mills¹,

Tiwari²,

Fairhurst³

2018

Phys. Rev. D

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“…We also observe the usual hierarchy of temperatures, with ν x being hotter thanν e neutrinos, which are themselves hotter than ν e . Global quantities show relative differences of (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)% between the M1 and MC results, which could be due either to the approximations made in the M1 scheme or to the slightly different microphysics implemented in each algorithm. We also note that the net flux of lepton number in the two schemes (i.e., number of ν e minus number ofν e leaving the grid) would likely be in closer agreement if the MC scheme was coupled to the fluid, as the fluid would evolve towards a new, slightly modified equilibrium composition.…”

Section: Neutrino Moments and Distribution Function A Overview:mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This event also shows the current limits of our ability to reliably extract information about merging compact objects using EM observations. For example, GW170817 was followed by a bright kilonova [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], an optical/infrared transient powered by radioactive decays in the neutron-rich ejecta produced by the merger [16][17][18][19][20]. EM observations of that kilonova have been used to infer plausible properties of the ejecta, and the outcome of r-process nucleosynthesis in the outflows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating radiation transport errors in merger simulations using a Monte Carlo algorithm

et al. 2018

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Neutrino-matter interactions play an important role in the postmerger evolution of neutron star-neutron star and black hole-neutron star mergers. Most notably, they determine the properties of the bright optical/ infrared transients observable after a merger. Unfortunately, Boltzmann's equations of radiation transport remain too costly to be evolved directly in merger simulations. Simulations rely instead on approximate transport algorithms with unquantified modeling errors. In this paper, we use for the first time a timedependent general relativistic Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm to solve Boltzmann's equations and estimate important properties of the neutrino distribution function ∼10 ms after a neutron star merger that resulted in the formation of a massive neutron star surrounded by an accretion disk. We do not fully couple the MC algorithm to the fluid evolution, but use a short evolution of the merger remnant to critically assess errors in our approximate gray two-moment transport scheme. We demonstrate that the analytical closure used by the moment scheme is highly inaccurate in the polar regions, but performs well elsewhere. While the average energy of polar neutrinos is reasonably well captured by the two-moment scheme, estimates for the neutrino energy become less accurate at lower latitudes. The two-moment formalism also overestimates the density of neutrinos in the polar regions by ∼50%, and underestimates the neutrino pair-annihilation rate at the poles by factors of 2-3. Although the latter is significantly more accurate than one might have expected before this study, our results indicate that predictions for the properties of polar outflows and for the creation of a baryon-free region at the poles are likely to be affected by errors in the two-moment scheme, thus limiting our ability to reliably model kilonovae and gamma-ray bursts.

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“…A gravitational wave source, GW170817, has been identified to be a neutron star merger (NSM) (Abbott et al 2017) and the association was observationally confirmed with a kilonova, AT2017gfo, whose light curve has been modeled with two components; early blue and later red ones (Cowperthwaite et al 2017;Tanaka et al 2017;Tanvir et al 2017;Kasen et al 2017;Villar et al 2017;Smartt et al 2017). In the scenario, the kilonova is possibly powered by the radioactive decay of neutron(n)-rich matter freshly synthesized in ejecta from NSM through r-process nucleosynthesis (Li & Paczyński 1998;Wanajo et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The impact of isomers on a kilonova associated with neutron star mergers

Fujimoto

Hashimoto

2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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We investigate the significance of isomers on a kilonova associated with neutron star mergers (NSMs) for the first time. We calculate the evolution of abundances and energy generation rates (ǫ nuc ) of ejecta from NSMs, taking into account β − decay through isomers. We find that for ejecta with electron fraction (Y e ) of 0.2 − 0.3,ǫ nuc is appreciably changed from those without isomers, due to the large change in timing of β − decay through the isomeric states of 123,125,127 Sn and 128 Sb. In particular, the effects of the isomers onǫ nuc are prominent for ejecta of Y e ∼ 0.25, which could emit a fraction of an early, blue component of a kilonova observed in GW170817. When the excitation from a ground state to its isomeric state is important, the isomers of 129 Sb and 129,131 Te also cause additional and appreciable change inǫ nuc . Furthermore, we demonstrate that larger amounts of lanthanide-free ejecta result in a better fit of an observed light curve of the kilonova in GW170817 if the isomers are taken into account.

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The Emergence of a Lanthanide-rich Kilonova Following the Merger of Two Neutron Stars

Cited by 635 publications

References 69 publications

Localization of binary neutron star mergers with second and third generation gravitational-wave detectors

Localization of binary neutron star mergers with second and third generation gravitational-wave detectors

Evaluating radiation transport errors in merger simulations using a Monte Carlo algorithm

The impact of isomers on a kilonova associated with neutron star mergers

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