r-Process Nucleosynthesis from Neutron Star Merger Winds

The rapid neutron capture process (r-process) is one of the main mechanisms whereby elements heavier than iron are synthesized, and is entirely responsible for the natural production of the actinides. 50 years ago, it was proposed that the r-process could occur in the unbinding of material during the inspiral and merger of either a neutron star and black hole, or two neutron stars.

Multi-messenger observations of the binary neutron star merger, GW170817, provided the first confirmation of lanthanide production in the merger ejecta. However, the full picture of the role neutron star mergers play in the production of galactic r-process abundances remains unclear. Understanding the intricacies of nucleosynthesis neutron star mergers is a multi-physics problem spanning several orders of magnitude in physical and temporal scale. In this work, I combine the use of r-process network calculations, general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations with neutrino transport, and chiral effective field theory informed nuclear equations of state to probe different source of uncertainties in r-process production from binary neutron star mergers.