The Emergence of a Lanthanide-rich Kilonova Following the Merger of Two Neutron Stars

By N. Tanvir, A. Levan, C. Gonzalez-Fernandez, Oleg Korobkin, Ilya Mandel, Stephan Rosswog, J. Hjorth, P. D’Avanzo, A. Fruchter, Chris L. Fryer and 44 more. 2017

539 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report the discovery and monitoring of the near-infrared counterpart (AT2017gfo) of a binary neutron-star merger event detected as a gravitational wave source by Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)/Virgo (GW170817) and as a short gamma-ray burst by Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and Integral SPI-ACS (GRB 170817A). The evolution of the transient light is consistent with predictions for the behavior of a “kilonova/macronova” powered by the radioactive decay of massive neutron-rich nuclides created via r-process nucleosynthesis in the neutron-star ejecta. In particular, evidence for this scenario is found from broad features seen in Hubble Space Telescope infrared spectroscopy, similar to those predicted for lanthanide-dominated ejecta, and the much slower evolution in the near-infrared K s -band compared to the optical. This indicates that the late-time light is dominated by high-opacity lanthanide-rich ejecta, suggesting nucleosynthesis to the third r-process peak (atomic masses A ≈ 195 ). This discovery confirms that neutron-star mergers produce kilo-/macronovae and that they are at least a major—if not the dominant—site of rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis in the universe.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cd5287c8d1cff3a019a070f333d0e549eab9f635

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Citations in the corpus

• The evolution of the X-ray afterglow emission of GW 170817 / GRB 170817A in XMM-Newton observations (2018, background): “…to a rapid (∆t < 11 h) identification of a relatively bright optical electromagnetic counterpart (EM), named AT2017gfo, in the galaxy NGC 4993 (Arcavi et al. 2017; Coulter et al. 2017; Lipunov et al. 2017; Melandri et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Soares-Santos et al. 2017; Valenti et al. 2017).”
• The Combined Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-infrared Light Curves of the Kilonova Associated with the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817: Unified Data Set, Analytic Models, and Physical Implications (2017, methodology): “The HST/ WFC3/F110W data from Tanvir et al. (2017) are re-calibrated to ground-based J-band photometry, so we use the data for these epochs from Troja et al. (2017).”
• AT 2017gfo: An Anisotropic and Three-component Kilonova Counterpart of GW170817 (2017, background): “Two or even three component models are necessary (Cowperthwaite et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Tanaka et al. 2017).”
• Binary Neutron Star Mergers: Mass Ejection, Electromagnetic Counterparts, and Nucleosynthesis (2018, background): “…ejected during and shortly after the merger (Chornock et al. 2017; Cowperthwaite et al. 2017; Drout et al. 2017; Nicholl et al. 2017; Perego et al. 2017a; Tanaka et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Utsumi et al. 2017; Villar et al. 2017; Waxman et al. 2018; Kawaguchi et al. 2018; Metzger et al. 2018).”
• ATLAS: A High-cadence All-sky Survey System (2018, background): “It was discovered in NGC4993 at a distance of only 40 Mpc by several telescopes as soon as night fell in Chile (Arcavi et al. 2017b; Coulter et al. 2017; Lipunov et al. 2017; Soares-Santos et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Valenti et al. 2017).”
• Bayesian inference for compact binary coalescences with bilby: validation and application to the first LIGO–Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalogue (2020, background): “…the structures of gamma-ray bursts (Abbott et al. 2017f; Mooley et al. 2018; Margutti et al. 2018; Fong et al. 2019; Biscoveanu et al. 2020b), and identifying the origins of heavy elements (Abbott et al. 2017g; Chornock et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Kasliwal et al. 2019; Watson et al. 2019).”
• Long-term GRMHD simulations of neutron star merger accretion discs: implications for electromagnetic counterparts (2018, methodology): “Evidence for the r-process comes from the photometric and spectroscopic properties of the observed kilonova (e.g., Cowperthwaite et al. 2017; Chornock et al. 2017; Drout et al. 2017; Tanaka et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017).”
• The Binary Neutron Star Event LIGO/Virgo GW170817 160 Days after Merger: Synchrotron Emission across the Electromagnetic Spectrum (2018, background): “…the KN emission (e.g. Cowperthwaite et al. 2017; Drout et al. 2017; Kasliwal et al. 2017; Nicholl et al. 2017; Pian et al. 2017; Smartt et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Villar et al. 2017), particularly the inferred presence of lanthanide-rich material created from very neutron-rich ejecta…”
• Three-dimensional GRMHD Simulations of Neutrino-cooled Accretion Disks from Neutron Star Mergers (2017, background): “…2017; Cowperthwaite et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Shappee et al. 2017; Kilpatrick et al. 2017; Kasliwal et al. 2017; Nicholl et al. 2017; Chornock et al. 2017; Drout et al. 2017; Mc- Cully et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Villar et al. 2017; however, see Smartt et al. 2017; Tanaka et al. 2017).”
• Constraints on the neutron star equation of state from AT2017gfo using radiative transfer simulations (2018, methodology): “…et al. 2017; Arcavi et al. 2017; Chornock et al. 2017; Cowperthwaite et al. 2017; Drout et al. 2017; Evans et al. 2017; Kasliwal et al. 2017; Tanvir et al. 2017; Pian et al. 2017a; Troja et al. 2017; Smartt et al. 2017; Utsumi et al. 2017; Valenti et al. 2017) from phases +0.467 to +25.19 d…”