Nuclear Burning in Collapsar Accretion Disks

TL;DR

This paper investigates how nuclear burning in collapsar accretion disks influences outflows and supernovae, revealing conditions for detonations and the production of radioactive nickel that powers observable supernova features.

Contribution

It introduces hydrodynamical simulations coupled with a nuclear network to study late-stage nuclear burning effects in collapsar disks, a novel approach in this context.

Findings

Nuclear burning can lead to detonations or quiescent burning in the disk.

Disk outflows can produce significant amounts of $^{56}$Ni.

Radioactive decay of $^{56}$Ni may power late-time supernova spectra.

Abstract

The core collapse of massive, rapidly-rotating stars are thought to be the progenitors of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRB) and their associated hyper-energetic supernovae (SNe). At early times after the collapse, relatively low angular momentum material from the infalling stellar envelope will circularize into an accretion disk located just outside the black hole horizon, resulting in high accretion rates necessary to power a GRB jet. Temperatures in the disk midplane at these small radii are sufficiently high to dissociate nuclei, while outflows from the disk can be neutron-rich and may synthesize r-process nuclei. However, at later times, and for high progenitor angular momentum, the outer layers of the stellar envelope can circularize at larger radii $\gtrsim 10^{7}$ cm, where nuclear reaction can take place in the disk midplane ((e.g.~$^{4}$He + $^{16}$O $\rightarrow$ $^{20}$Ne + $\gamma$).. Here we explore the effects of nuclear burning on collapsar accretion disks and their outflows by means of hydrodynamical $\alpha$-viscosity torus simulations coupled to a 19-isotope nuclear reaction network, which are designed to mimic the late infall epochs in collapsar evolution when the viscous time of the torus has become comparable to the envelope fall-back time. Our results address several key questions, such as the conditions for quiescent burning and accretion versus detonation and the generation of $^{56}$Ni in disk outflows, which we show could contribute significantly to powering GRB supernovae. Being located in the slowest, innermost layers of the ejecta, the latter could provide the radioactive heating source necessary to make the spectral signatures of r-process elements visible in late-time GRB-SNe spectra.