Radioactive Gamma-Ray Lines from Long-lived Neutron Star Merger Remnants

Abstract

The observation of a kilonova AT2017gfo associated with the gravitational wave event GW170817 provides the first strong evidence that neutron star mergers are dominant contributors to the production of heavy $r$-process elements. Radioactive gamma-ray lines emitted from neutron star merger remnants provide a unique probe for investigating the nuclide composition and tracking its evolution. In this work, we studied the gamma-ray line features arising from the radioactive decay of heavy nuclei in the merger remnants based on the $r$-process nuclear reaction network and the astrophysical inputs derived from numerical relativity simulations. The decay chain of $^{126}_{50}$Sn ($T_{1/2}=230$ kyr) $\to$ $^{126}_{51}$Sb ($T_{1/2}=12.35$ days) $\to$ $^{126}_{52}$Te (stable) produces several bright gamma-ray lines with energies of $415$, $667$, and $695$ keV, making it the most promising decay chain during the remnant phase. The photon fluxes of these bright gamma-ray lines reach $\sim10^{-5}$ $\gamma$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ for Galactic merger remnants with ages less than $100$~kyr, which can be detected by the high energy resolution MeV gamma-ray detectors like the MASS mission.