Nucleosynthesis in the accretion disks of Type II collapsars

TL;DR

This study models nucleosynthesis in low accretion rate, advection-dominated GRB accretion disks from Type II collapsars, revealing synthesis of unusual nuclei and confirming formation of common heavy elements, with implications for observed signatures.

Contribution

It introduces detailed nucleosynthesis modeling in fallback accretion disks of Type II collapsars at low accretion rates, highlighting synthesis of rare nuclei and their potential observational signatures.

Findings

Synthesis of unusual nuclei like {31}P, {39}K, {43}Sc, {35}Cl.

Confirmation of common heavy element formation such as Fe, Ni, Si.

Heavy elements are likely ejected via outflows, affecting observed data.

Abstract

We investigate nucleosynthesis inside the gamma-ray burst (GRB) accretion disks formed by the Type II collapsars. In these collapsars, the core collapse of massive stars first leads to the formation of a proto-neutron star and a mild supernova explosion is driven. However, this supernova ejecta lack momentum and falls back onto the neutron star which gets transformed to a stellar mass black hole. In order to study the hydrodynamics and nucleosynthesis of such an accretion disk formed from the fallback material of the supernova ejecta, we use the well established hydrodynamic models. In such a disk neutrino cooling becomes important in the inner disk where the temperature and density are higher. Higher the accretion rate (dot{M}), higher is the density and temperature in the disks. In this work we deal with accretion disks with relatively low accretion rates: 0.001 M_sun s^{-1} \lesssim dot{M} \lesssim 0.01 M_sun s^{-1} and hence these disks are predominantly advection dominated. We use He-rich and Si-rich abundances as the initial condition of nucleosynthesis at the outer disk, and being equipped with the disk hydrodynamics and the nuclear network code, we study the abundance evolution as matter inflows and falls into the central object. We investigate the variation in the nucleosynthesis products in the disk with the change in the initial abundance at the outer disk and also with the change in the mass accretion rate. We report the synthesis of several unusual nuclei like {31}P, {39}K, {43}Sc, {35}Cl, and various isotopes of titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese and copper. We also confirm that isotopes of iron, cobalt, nickel, argon, calcium, sulphur and silicon get synthesized in the disk, as shown by previous authors. Much of these heavy elements thus synthesized are ejected from the disk via outflows and hence they should leave their signature in observed data.