Speaker
Oleg Korobkin
(Los Alamos National Lab)
Description
Mergers of two neutron stars produce variety of outflows, containing radioactive mixture of freshly synthesized $r$-process elements. Nuclear heating due to decays in these outflows is expected to power an elusive supernova-like transient -- macronova or kilonova. If observed, such transients could provide information about astrophysical environment of the mergers, as well as valueable insights into the nature of r-process and neutron-rich region of the nuclear chart. Detection and characterization of macronovae demand accurate light curve calculations to reliably discriminate them from plethora of background sources. An essential ingredient to the light curve prediction is radioactive heating rates, which depends on several parameters of the adopted r-process model. Here we present an update on our study of the detailed radiation source in outflows of neutron star mergers. We also discuss potential prospects of detecting merger remnants in X-ray and gamma-ray bands.
Primary author
Oleg Korobkin
(Los Alamos National Lab)