A lanthanide-rich kilonova in the aftermath of a long gamma-ray burst

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Yang, Yu-Han; Troja, Eleonora; O'Connor, Brendan; Fryer, Chris L.; Im, Myungshin; Durbak, Joe; Paek, Gregory S. H.; Ricci, Roberto; Bom, Clecio R.; Gillanders, James H.; Castro-Tirado, Alberto J.; Peng, Zong-Kai; Dichiara, Simone; Ryan, Geoffrey; van Eerten, Hendrik; Dai, Zi-Gao; Chang, Seo-Won; Choi, Hyeonho; De, Kishalay; Hu, Youdong; Kilpatrick, Charles D.; Kutyrev, Alexander; Jeong, Mankeun; Lee, Chung-Uk; Makler, Martin; Navarete, Felipe; Perez-Garcia, Ignacio
• 署名单位: University of Rome Tor Vergata; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); George Washington University; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Los Alamos National Laboratory; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Los Alamos National Laboratory; University of Arizona; University of New Mexico; George Washington University; Seoul National University (SNU); Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRIM); Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas; Centro Federal de Educacao Tecnologica Celso Suckow da Fonseca (CEFET-RJ); Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA); Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); Universidad de Malaga; Beijing Normal University; Beijing Normal University; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park; Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics; University of Bath; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Science & Technology of China, CAS; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Northwestern University; Northwestern University; Korea Astronomy & Space Science Institute (KASI); Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET)
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-3748
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06979-5
• 发表日期: 2024-02-22
• 关键词: neutron-star merger; white-dwarf; galaxies; constraints; supernova; SPECTRA

摘要

Observationally, kilonovae are astrophysical transients powered by the radioactive decay of nuclei heavier than iron, thought to be synthesized in the merger of two compact objects1-4. Over the first few days, the kilonova evolution is dominated by a large number of radioactive isotopes contributing to the heating rate2,5. On timescales of weeks to months, its behaviour is predicted to differ depending on the ejecta composition and the merger remnant6-8. Previous work has shown that the kilonova associated with gamma-ray burst 230307A is similar to kilonova AT2017gfo (ref. 9), and mid-infrared spectra revealed an emission line at 2.15 micrometres that was attributed to tellurium. Here we report a multi-wavelength analysis, including publicly available James Webb Space Telescope data9 and our own Hubble Space Telescope data, for the same gamma-ray burst. We model its evolution up to two months after the burst and show that, at these late times, the recession of the photospheric radius and the rapidly decaying bolometric luminosity (Lbol proportional to t-2.7 +/- 0.4, where t is time) support the recombination of lanthanide-rich ejecta as they cool. A modelling analysis shows that an unusually long gamma-ray burst gave rise to a lanthanide-rich kilonova following the merger of a neutron star-neutron star or of a neutron star-black hole.