Dynamical ejecta of neutron star mergers with nucleonic weak processes I: Nucleosynthesis

TL;DR

This study investigates how neutrino interactions influence the nucleosynthesis and heating rates in the dynamical ejecta of neutron star mergers, revealing significant effects on element distribution and potential implications for kilonova observations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of neutrino effects on r-process nucleosynthesis in neutron star merger ejecta using advanced hydrodynamical simulations, highlighting the impact on element abundance patterns.

Findings

Neutrino interactions significantly alter ejecta neutron richness.

A solar-like r-process element distribution is produced.

The abundance pattern and heating rates are largely independent of system mass and equation of state.

Abstract

We present a coherent study of the impact of neutrino interactions on the r-process element nucleosynthesis and the heating rate produced by the radioactive elements synthesised in the dynamical ejecta of neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) mergers. We have studied the material ejected from four NS-NS merger systems based on hydrodynamical simulations which handle neutrino effects in an elaborate way by including neutrino equilibration with matter in optically thick regions and re-absorption in optically thin regions. We find that the neutron richness of the dynamical ejecta is significantly affected by the neutrinos emitted by the post-merger remnant, in particular when compared to a case neglecting all neutrino interactions. Our nucleosynthesis results show that a solar-like distribution of r- process elements with mass numbers $A \gtrsim 90$ is produced, including a significant enrichment in Sr and a reduced production of actinides compared to simulations without inclusion of the nucleonic weak processes. The composition of the dynamically ejected matter as well as the corresponding rate of radioactive decay heating are found to be rather independent of the system mass asymmetry and the adopted equation of state. This approximate degeneracy in abundance pattern and heating rates can be favourable for extracting the ejecta properties from kilonova observations, at least if the dynamical component dominates the overall ejecta. Part II of this work will study the light curve produced by the dynamical ejecta of our four NS merger models.