Neutron Star Mergers as the Main Source of R-process: Natal Kicks And Inside-Out Evolution to The Rescue

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that natal kicks and inside-out galaxy evolution can explain the observed europium abundance trends in the Milky Way, supporting neutron star mergers as the primary r-process source without modifying their delay time distribution.

Contribution

It shows that combining natal kicks with inside-out disk evolution models allows neutron star mergers to match observed r-process element trends without extra sources or DTD modifications.

Findings

Natal kicks help explain europium abundance trends.

Inside-out galaxy evolution models are crucial.

Neutron star mergers can account for all r-process enrichment.

Abstract

Binary neutron star mergers (BNSMs) is currently the most promising source of \textsl{r}-process thanks to the detection of GW170817. The estimated occurring frequency and the amount of mass ejected per merger indicate that BNSMs by itself can account for all the \textsl{r}-process enrichment in the Galaxy. However, the decreasing trend of [Eu/Fe] vs [Fe/H] of disk stars for [Fe/H]$\gtrsim -1$ in the solar neighborhood is inconsistent with the flat trend expected from BNSMs with a standard delay time distribution (DTD) $\propto t^{-1}$. This has led to the suggestion that either additional sources or modification to the DTD of BNSMs is required to match the observations. We investigate the effects of natal kicks received during the birth of neutron star binaries on the chemical evolution of \textsl{r}-process element Eu in the Milky Way by combining the results from the galactic dynamics code \textsc{galpy} with a one-zone Galactic chemical evolution model \textsc{omega}. We show that when key inputs from simulations of the inside-out disk evolution are combined with natal kicks, BNSMs can naturally reproduce the observed decreasing trend of [Eu/Fe] with [Fe/H] in the solar neighborhood without the need for modification to the DTD or additional \textsl{r}-process sources.