r-Process as Production of Lanthanides from Compact Object Mergers

The relative contributions of binary neutron star (BNS) and black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) mergers to the Galactic enrichment from the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) remain an open question in nuclear astrophysics. In this paper, we present end-to-end numerical simulations of binary population synthesis, nucleosynthesis, and Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) via Compact Object Mergers Population Astrophysics and Statistics (COMPAS), SkyNet network, and a stochastic multi-zone model, respectively. By considering five equations of state (EOS) of NS and different spins of BH for BNS and BH-NS mergers, it is found that the averaged abundance seems not to be significantly dependent on the EOS of NS and spin of BH for BNS and BH-NS mergers. For given EOSs of NS, the abundance of BNS is higher than that of BH-NS mergers before the second peak (for mass number A about 130), but it is lower when the mass number is greater than 130. Moreover, the lighter r-process elements (A< 130) are predominantly produced by the disk wind, while the heavier elements (A> 130) originate mainly from the dynamical ejecta. The purely BNS mergers, on the other hand, are the dominant contributors to the production of lanthanides like europium (Eu) at the later stage of GCE, but BH-NS mergers make only a small contribution of heavy r-process elements for the Eu/Fe evolutionary tracks in the Milky Way.