r -Process as Production of Lanthanides from Compact Object Mergers

Abstract 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), the SkyNet network, and a stochastic multizone model, respectively. By considering five equations of state (EOSs) 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 the neutron star (NS) and the spin of the BH for the BNS and BH-NS mergers. For the given EOSs of NS, the abundance of the BNS is higher than that of the BH-NS mergers before the second peak (for mass number A ∼ 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.