Signatures of R-process Enrichment in Supernovae from Collapsars

Understand

Despite recent progress, the astrophysical channels responsible for rapid neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis remain an unsettled question.

• Observations of kilonovae following gravitational wave-detected neutron star mergers established mergers as one site of the r-process, but additional sources may be needed to fully explain r-process enrichment in the Universe.
• One intriguing possibility is that rapidly rotating massive stars undergoing core collapse launch r-process-rich outflows off the accretion disks formed from their infalling matter.
• In this scenario, r-process winds comprise one component of the supernova (SN) ejecta produced by "collapsar" explosions.