Network in Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS) Seminars |
Events on Tuesday, March 16th, 2021
- Matter Outflows in Neutron Star Mergers
- Time: 2:00 pm
- Place:
- Speaker: Francois Foucart , University of New Hampshire
- Abstract: Determining the properties of the mildly relativistic outflows produced during and after the merger of neutron star binaries is crucial to understand the role of mergers in the production of heavy elements, as well as to analyze multi-messenger observations of these systems. The mass and composition of these outflows determine how much matter is available for r-process nucleosynthesis, as well as the relative abundance of the various elements produced by the r-process. Additionally, the properties of these matter outflows are tightly linked to the observable characteristics of kilonovae. In this talk, I will discuss what merger simulations have taught us so far about neutron star merger outflows, focusing particularly on the dynamics of black hole-neutron star mergers, and on the main sources of uncertainty in current outflow models for both black hole-neutron star and neutron star-neutron star binary mergers.
- Host: Baha Balantekin