Actinide Production in Neutron-Rich Ejecta of a Neutron Star Merger

Abstract

The rapid-neutron-capture ("r") process is responsible for synthesizing many of the heavy elements observed in both the solar system and Galactic metal-poor halo stars. Simulations of r-process nucleosynthesis can reproduce abundances derived from observations with varying success, but so far fail to account for the observed over-enhancement of actinides, present in about 30% of r-process-enhanced stars. In this work, we investigate actinide production in the dynamical ejecta of a neutron star merger and explore if varying levels of neutron richness can reproduce the actinide boost. We also investigate the sensitivity of actinide production on nuclear physics properties: fission distribution, beta-decay, and mass model. For most cases, the actinides are over-produced in our models if the initial conditions are sufficiently neutron-rich for fission cycling. We find that actinide production can be so robust in the dynamical ejecta that an additional lanthanide-rich, actinide-poor component is necessary in order to match observations of actinide-boost stars. We present a simple actinide-dilution model that folds in estimated contributions from two nucleosynthetic sites within a merger event. Our study suggests that while the dynamical ejecta of a neutron star merger is a likely production site for the formation of actinides, a significant contribution from another site or sites (e.g., the neutron star merger accretion disk wind) is required to explain abundances of r-process-enhanced, metal-poor stars.