Kilonovae and Long-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts
Abstract Recent detections of kilonova-like emission following long-duration gamma-ray bursts GRB 211211A and GRB 230307A have been interpreted as originating from the merger of two neutron stars. In this work, we demonstrate that these observations are also consistent with nucleosynthesis originating from a collapsar scenario. Our model is capable of reproducing the observed optical and infrared light curves using a single, weak r -process component. The absence of lanthanide-rich material in our model, consistent with the data, challenges the prevailing interpretation that a red evolution in such transients necessarily indicates the presence of heavy r -process elements.
Authors
- Matthew R. Mumpower (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9950-9688)
- Jonah M Miller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6432-7860)
- Samuel Cupp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1758-8376)
- Brandon L. Barker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8825-0893)
- Nicole Lloyd-Ronning (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1707-7998)
- Oleg Korobkin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4156-5342)
- Marko Ristić (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7042-4472)
- Axel Gross (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7893-4183)
Institutions
- University of Notre Dame (US)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)
- FWRadiology (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Published
- 2026-04-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae5e53
- Primary Topic
- Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00