Neutrinos and the synthesis of heavy elements: the role of gravity

TL;DR

This paper explores how neutrino emissions from black hole accretion disks, influenced by strong gravity, affect the conditions for heavy element synthesis in the universe.

Contribution

It analyzes the impact of gravitational effects on neutrino emission and electron fraction in black hole accretion disks, a potential site for r-process nucleosynthesis.

Findings

Gravitational fields significantly alter neutrino emission properties.

Neutrino interactions influence the electron fraction critical for element formation.

Black hole accretion disks could be key sites for heavy element synthesis.

Abstract

The synthesis of heavy elements in the Universe presents several challenges. From one side the astrophysical site is still undetermined and on other hand the input from nuclear physics requires the knowledge of properties of exotic nuclei, some of them perhaps accessible in ion beam facilities. Black hole accretion disks have been proposed as possible r-process sites. Analogously to Supernovae these objects emit huge amounts of neutrinos. We discuss the neutrino emission from black hole accretion disks. In particular we show the influence that the black hole strong gravitational field has on changing the electron fraction relevant to the synthesis of elements.