Electromagnetic Transients Powered by Nuclear Decay in the Tidal Tails of Coalescing Compact Binaries

Understand

The possibility that long tidal tails formed during compact object mergers may power optical transients through the decay of freshly synthesized r-process material is investigated.

• Precise modeling of the merger dynamics allows for a realistic determination of the thermodynamic conditions in the ejected debris.
• The results of hydrodynamic and full nuclear network calculations are combined to calculate the resultant r-process abundances and the heating of the material by their decays.
• The subsequent homologous structure is mapped into a radiative transfer code to synthesize emergent model light curves and determine how their properties (variability and color evolution) depend on the mass ratio and orientation of the merging binary.