IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v626y2024i8000d10.1038_s41586-023-06979-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Yu-Han Yang

    (University of Rome “Tor Vergata”)

  • Eleonora Troja

    (University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
    INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica)

  • Brendan O’Connor

    (The George Washington University
    University of Maryland
    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

  • Chris L. Fryer

    (Los Alamos National Laboratory
    Los Alamos National Laboratory
    The University of Arizona
    The University of New Mexico)

  • Myungshin Im

    (Seoul National University)

  • Joe Durbak

    (University of Maryland
    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

  • Gregory S. H. Paek

    (Seoul National University)

  • Roberto Ricci

    (Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica
    INAF - Istituto di Radioastronomia)

  • Clécio R. Bom

    (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas
    Rodovia Mário Covas)

  • James H. Gillanders

    (University of Rome “Tor Vergata”)

  • Alberto J. Castro-Tirado

    (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC)
    Universidad de Málaga)

  • Zong-Kai Peng

    (Beijing Normal University
    Beijing Normal University)

  • Simone Dichiara

    (The Pennsylvania State University)

  • Geoffrey Ryan

    (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)

  • Hendrik van Eerten

    (University of Bath)

  • Zi-Gao Dai

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Seo-Won Chang

    (Seoul National University)

  • Hyeonho Choi

    (Seoul National University)

  • Kishalay De

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Youdong Hu

    (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC))

  • Charles D. Kilpatrick

    (Northwestern University)

  • Alexander Kutyrev

    (University of Maryland
    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

  • Mankeun Jeong

    (Seoul National University)

  • Chung-Uk Lee

    (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute)

  • Martin Makler

    (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas
    ECyT-UNSAM and CONICET)

  • Felipe Navarete

    (SOAR Telescope/NSF’s NOIRLab)

  • Ignacio Pérez-García

    (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC))

Abstract

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 ∝ t−2.7±0.4, where t is time) support the recombination of lanthanide-rich ejecta as they cool.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu-Han Yang & Eleonora Troja & Brendan O’Connor & Chris L. Fryer & Myungshin Im & Joe Durbak & Gregory S. H. Paek & Roberto Ricci & Clécio R. Bom & James H. Gillanders & Alberto J. Castro-Tirado & Zon, 2024. "A lanthanide-rich kilonova in the aftermath of a long gamma-ray burst," Nature, Nature, vol. 626(8000), pages 742-745, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:626:y:2024:i:8000:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06979-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06979-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06979-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-023-06979-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:626:y:2024:i:8000:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06979-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.