Heavy-element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST.
Nature 626:8000 (2024) 737-741
Authors:
Andrew J Levan, Benjamin P Gompertz, Om Sharan Salafia, Mattia Bulla, Eric Burns, Kenta Hotokezaka, Luca Izzo, Gavin P Lamb, Daniele B Malesani, Samantha R Oates, Maria Edvige Ravasio, Alicia Rouco Escorial, Benjamin Schneider, Nikhil Sarin, Steve Schulze, Nial R Tanvir, Kendall Ackley, Gemma Anderson, Gabriel B Brammer, Lise Christensen, Vikram S Dhillon, Phil A Evans, Michael Fausnaugh, Wen-Fai Fong, Andrew S Fruchter, Chris Fryer, Johan PU Fynbo, Nicola Gaspari, Kasper E Heintz, Jens Hjorth, Jamie A Kennea, Mark R Kennedy, Tanmoy Laskar, Giorgos Leloudas, Ilya Mandel, Antonio Martin-Carrillo, Brian D Metzger, Matt Nicholl, Anya Nugent, Jesse T Palmerio, Giovanna Pugliese, Jillian Rastinejad, Lauren Rhodes, Andrea Rossi, Andrea Saccardi, Stephen J Smartt, Heloise F Stevance, Aaron Tohuvavohu, Alexander van der Horst, Susanna D Vergani, Darach Watson, Thomas Barclay, Kornpob Bhirombhakdi, Elmé Breedt, Alice A Breeveld, Alexander J Brown, Sergio Campana, Ashley A Chrimes, Paolo D'Avanzo, Valerio D'Elia, Massimiliano De Pasquale, Martin J Dyer, Duncan K Galloway, James A Garbutt, Matthew J Green, Dieter H Hartmann, Páll Jakobsson, Paul Kerry, Chryssa Kouveliotou, Danial Langeroodi, Emeric Le Floc'h, James K Leung, Stuart P Littlefair, James Munday, Paul O'Brien, Steven G Parsons, Ingrid Pelisoli, David I Sahman, Ruben Salvaterra, Boris Sbarufatti, Danny Steeghs, Gianpiero Tagliaferri, Christina C Thöne, Antonio de Ugarte Postigo, David Alexander Kann
Abstract:
The mergers of binary compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes are of central interest to several areas of astrophysics, including as the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)1, sources of high-frequency gravitational waves (GWs)2 and likely production sites for heavy-element nucleosynthesis by means of rapid neutron capture (the r-process)3. Here we present observations of the exceptionally bright GRB 230307A. We show that GRB 230307A belongs to the class of long-duration GRBs associated with compact object mergers4-6 and contains a kilonova similar to AT2017gfo, associated with the GW merger GW170817 (refs. 7-12). We obtained James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mid-infrared imaging and spectroscopy 29 and 61 days after the burst. The spectroscopy shows an emission line at 2.15 microns, which we interpret as tellurium (atomic mass A = 130) and a very red source, emitting most of its light in the mid-infrared owing to the production of lanthanides. These observations demonstrate that nucleosynthesis in GRBs can create r-process elements across a broad atomic mass range and play a central role in heavy-element nucleosynthesis across the Universe.
