Heavy-element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST

Levan, A ORCID: 0000-0001-7821-9369, Gompertz, BP ORCID: 0000-0002-5826-0548, Salafia, OS, Bulla, M, Burns, E ORCID: 0000-0002-2942-3379, Hotokezaka, K, Izzo, L ORCID: 0000-0001-9695-8472, Lamb, GP ORCID: 0000-0001-5169-4143, Malesani, DB ORCID: 0000-0002-7517-326X, Oates, SR ORCID: 0000-0001-9309-7873, Ravasio, ME, Rouco Escorial, A ORCID: 0000-0003-3937-0618, Schneider, B ORCID: 0000-0003-4876-7756, Sarin, N, Schulze, S ORCID: 0000-0001-6797-1889, Tanvir, NR ORCID: 0000-0003-3274-6336, Ackley, K, Anderson, G, Brammer, GB ORCID: 0000-0003-2680-005X, Christensen, L ORCID: 0000-0001-8415-7547 et al (2023) Heavy-element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST. Nature, 626. pp. 737-741. ISSN 0028-0836

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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 (GW)2 and likely production sites for heavy element nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture (the r-process)3. Here we present observations of the exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst GRB 230307A. We show that GRB 230307A belongs to the class of long-duration gamma-ray bursts associated with compact object mergers4–6, and contains a kilonova similar to AT2017gfo, associated with the gravitational-wave merger GW1708177–12. We obtained James Webb Space Telescope mid-infrared (mid-IR) 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-IR due 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.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	General Science & Technology
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date of acceptance:	17 October 2023
Date of first compliant Open Access:	25 April 2024
Date Deposited:	27 Oct 2023 14:37
Last Modified:	04 Jul 2025 16:15
DOI or ID number:	10.1038/s41586-023-06759-1
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/21754

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