The relative contribution to heavy metals production from binary neutron star mergers and neutron star-black hole mergers

Understand

The origin of the heavy elements in the Universe is not fully determined.

• Neutron star-black hole (NSBH) and {binary neutron star} (BNS) mergers may both produce heavy elements via rapid neutron-capture (r-process).
• We use the recent detection of gravitational waves from NSBHs, improved measurements of the neutron star equation-of-state, and the most modern numerical simulations of ejected material from binary collisions to measure the relative contribution of NSBHs and BNSs to the production of heavy elements.
• As the amount of r-process ejecta depends on the mass and spin distribution of the compact objects, as well as on the equation-of-state of the neutron stars, we consider various models for these quantities, informed by gravitational-wave and pulsar data.