Speaker
Oleg Korobkin
Description
Neutron star mergers are some of the most energetic events
in the Universe, powerful
emitters of gravitational waves, mysterious engines behind
short GRBs, possibly the
main sites of the strong r-process nucleosynthesis. A new
type of transients, --
called macronova or kilonova -- has been recently suggested
and possibly discovered
in the afterglow of GRB 130603B. These isotropic, infrared
transients might be the
only possible way to pinpoint the source of gravitational
waves coming from the
merging neutron stars.
Here we present a study of their light curves and spectra,
computed with the new
multidimensional radiative transfer code SuperNu and
accurate state-of-theart LTE
opacities for a few representative elements (lighter
elements: Cr, Pd, Se, Te, Br,
Zr, lanthanides: Sm, Ce, Nd, and an actinide U) for a range
of ejecta morphologies.
We assess the importance of various physics ingredience in
the brightness and
duration of the signal.
