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

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Levan, A, Gompertz, BP, Salafia, OS, Bulla, M, Burns, E, Hotokezaka, K, Izzo, L, Lamb, GP, Malesani, DB, Oates, SR, Ravasio, ME, Rouco Escorial, A, Schneider, B, Sarin, N, Schulze, S, Tanvir, NR, Ackley, K, Anderson, G, Brammer, GB, Christensen, L 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: 20 May 2025 14:15
DOI or ID number: 10.1038/s41586-023-06759-1
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/21754
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