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Title: Systematic exploration of heavy element nucleosynthesis in protomagnetar outflows
ABSTRACT

We study the nucleosynthesis products in neutrino-driven winds from rapidly rotating, highly magnetized and misaligned protomagnetars using the nuclear reaction network SkyNet. We adopt a semi-analytic parametrized model for the protomagnetar and systematically study the capabilities of its neutrino-driven wind for synthesizing nuclei and eventually producing ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). We find that for neutron-rich outflows (Ye < 0.5), synthesis of heavy elements ($\overline{A}\sim 20-65$) is possible during the first $\sim 10\, {\rm s}$ of the outflow, but these nuclei are subjected to composition-altering photodisintegration during the epoch of particle acceleration at the dissipation radii. However, after the first $\sim 10\, {\rm s}$ of the outflow, nucleosynthesis reaches lighter elements ($\overline{A}\sim 10-50$) that are not subjected to subsequent photodisintegration. For proton-rich (Ye ≥ 0.5) outflows, synthesis is more limited ($\overline{A}\sim 4-15$). These suggest that while protomagnetars typically do not synthesize nuclei heavier than second r-process peak elements, they are intriguing sources of intermediate/heavy mass UHECRs. For all configurations, the most rapidly rotating protomagnetars are more conducive for nucleosynthesis with a weaker dependence on the magnetic field strength.

 
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Award ID(s):
1914409 1908960
NSF-PAR ID:
10405210
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Oxford University Press
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume:
513
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0035-8711
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: p. 405-419
Size(s):
["p. 405-419"]
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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