Calculation of Elemental Abundance with Exotic Nuclei in Explosive Environment

Abstract

The final abundance of the elements created in the r-process in an astrophysical site depends on the composition of the ejecta, the specific entropy, and the dynamic timescale considered. In this study, we examine the impact of increasing entropy on the abundance pattern in kilonovae associated with NSNS and NSBH mergers at a given temperature and initial electron fraction. Increasing entropy creates favorable conditions for r-process nucleosynthesis, which leads to the formation of second and third r-process peaks for a certain intermediate value of electron fraction. We could observe that increasing entropy does not have a significant effect on very low and very high electron fractions. After that, we looked at how altering a few exotic nuclei’s neutron capture and photo-disintegration reaction rates would affect the entire abundance pattern. Despite the low abundance of exotic nuclei, changes in their reaction rates have observable effects on the final abundance.