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

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, Zong-Kai Peng, Simone Dichiara, Geoffrey Ryan, Hendrik van Eerten, Zi-Gao Dai, Seo-Won Chang, Hyeonho Choi, Kishalay De, Youdong Hu, Charles D. Kilpatrick, Alexander Kutyrev, Mankeun Jeong, Chung-Uk Lee, Martin Makler, Felipe Navarete and Ignacio Pérez-García
Additional contact information
Yu-Han Yang: University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
Eleonora Troja: University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
Brendan O’Connor: The George Washington University
Chris L. Fryer: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Myungshin Im: Seoul National University
Joe Durbak: University of Maryland
Gregory S. H. Paek: Seoul National University
Roberto Ricci: Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica
Clécio R. Bom: Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas
James H. Gillanders: University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
Alberto J. Castro-Tirado: Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC)
Zong-Kai Peng: 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
Mankeun Jeong: Seoul National University
Chung-Uk Lee: Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
Martin Makler: Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas
Felipe Navarete: SOAR Telescope/NSF’s NOIRLab
Ignacio Pérez-García: Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC)

Nature, 2024, vol. 626, issue 8000, 742-745

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06979-5

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