2025/07/01 by Tejas Prasanna, Prasanna, Tejas, Matthew S. B. Coleman +9
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Neutrino Physics Research #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.01094
openalex publication_date 2025/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The astrophysical origin of elements synthesized through the rapid neutron capture process (r-process) is a long standing mystery. The hot and dense environments of core-collapse supernovae have been suggested as potential r-process sites, particularly the neutrino-driven wind from the newly-born protoneutron star (PNS). Wind models that neglect the potential effects of strong magnetic fields and/or rapid rotation of the PNS typically fail to achieve the necessary conditions for production of the third r-process peak, but robustly produce a limited or weak r-process for neutron-rich winds. Axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic simulations of rotating and non-rotating PNS winds with magnetar-strength fields reveal that high entropy material is quasi-periodically ejected from the equatorial closed zone of the PNS magnetosphere. Here, we post-process tracer particle trajectories from these simulations using a nuclear reaction network in order to explore the resulting nucleosynthesis across a range of PNS magnetic field strengths, rotation rates, and neutrino luminosities (cooling phase after core-bounce). We find that a robust r-process up to and beyond the third peak is generic to magnetar birth, even for magnetic fields as weak as ∼ 5× 1014 G. Depending on the distribution of magnetic field strengths and rotation at birth, we estimate that magnetized PNS winds could account for ∼ 5-100% of the Galactic r-process inventory, extending up to the third peak. The robust r-process in our calculations is accompanied by overproduction of elements with mass number \rm A\lesssim 120 compared to the Solar abundances. We also find that 92\rm Mo (a p-isotope) is produced in significant quantities in neutron-rich winds.