Structure Calculations in Nd III and U III Relevant for Kilonovae Modelling

Ricardo F. Silva, Jorge M. Sampaio, Pedro Amaro, Andreas Flörs, Gabriel Martínez-Pinedo, José P. Marques

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
26 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The detection of gravitational waves and electromagnetic signals from the neutron star merger GW170817 has provided evidence that these astrophysical events are sites where the r-process nucleosynthesis operates. The electromagnetic signal, commonly known as kilonova, is powered by the radioactive decay of freshly synthesized nuclei. However, its luminosity, colour and spectra depend on the atomic opacities of the produced elements. In particular, opacities of lanthanides and actinides elements, due to their large density of bound–bound transitions, are fundamental. The current work focuses on atomic structure calculations for lanthanide and actinide ions, which are important in kilonovae modelling of ejecta spectra. Calculations for Nd III and U III, two representative rare-earth ions, were achieved. Our aim is to provide valuable insights for future opacity calculations for all heavy elements. We noticed that the opacity of U III is about an order of magnitude greater than the opacity of Nd III due to a higher density of levels in the case of the actinide.

Original languageEnglish
Article number18
JournalAtoms
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2022

Keywords

  • Atomic data
  • Kilonovae
  • Neutron stars
  • Opacity
  • Oscillator strengths

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