Impact of Newly Measured β -Delayed Neutron Emitters around Ni 78 on Light Element Nucleosynthesis in the Neutrino Wind Following a Neutron Star Merger

A. Tolosa-Delgado; J. L. Tain; M. Reichert; A. Arcones; M. Eichler; B. C. Rasco; N. T. Brewer; K. P. Rykaczewski; R. Yokoyama; R. Grzywacz; I. Dillmann; J. Agramunt; D. S. Ahn; A. Algora; H. Baba; S. Bae; C. G. Bruno; R. Caballero Folch; F. Calvino; P. J. Coleman-Smith; G. Cortes; T. Davinson; C. Domingo-Pardo; A. Estrade; N. Fukuda; S. Go; C. J. Griffin; J. Ha; O. Hall; L. Harkness-Brennan; T. Isobe; D. Kahl; M. Karny; L. H. Khiem; G. G. Kiss; M. Kogimtzis; A. Korgul; S. Kubono; M. Labiche; I. Lazarus; J. Liang; J. Lee; J. Liu; G. Lorusso; K. Matsui; K. Miernik; F. Montes; B. Moon; A. I. Morales; N. Nepal; S. Nishimura; R. D. Page; M. Piersa-Siłkowska; V. H. Phong; Zs Podolyák; V. F.E. Pucknell; P. H. Regan; B. Rubio; Y. Saito; H. Sakurai; Y. Shimizu; J. Simpson; P. A. Söderström; D. W. Stracener; T. Sumikama; R. Surman; H. Suzuki; M. Takechi; H. Takeda; A. Tarifeño-Saldivia; S. L. Thomas; M. Wolińska-Cichocka; P. J. Woods; X. X. Xu

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.172701

Impact of Newly Measured β -Delayed Neutron Emitters around Ni 78 on Light Element Nucleosynthesis in the Neutrino Wind Following a Neutron Star Merger

A. Tolosa-Delgado, J. L. Tain, M. Reichert, A. Arcones, M. Eichler, B. C. Rasco, N. T. Brewer, K. P. Rykaczewski, R. Yokoyama, R. Grzywacz, I. Dillmann, J. Agramunt, D. S. Ahn, A. Algora, H. Baba, S. Bae, C. G. Bruno, R. Caballero Folch, F. Calvino, P. J. Coleman-SmithG. Cortes, T. Davinson, C. Domingo-Pardo, A. Estrade, N. Fukuda, S. Go, C. J. Griffin, J. Ha, O. Hall, L. Harkness-Brennan, T. Isobe, D. Kahl, M. Karny, L. H. Khiem, G. G. Kiss, M. Kogimtzis, A. Korgul, S. Kubono, M. Labiche, I. Lazarus, J. Liang, J. Lee, J. Liu, G. Lorusso, K. Matsui, K. Miernik, F. Montes, B. Moon, A. I. Morales, N. Nepal, S. Nishimura, R. D. Page, M. Piersa-Siłkowska, V. H. Phong, Zs Podolyák, V. F.E. Pucknell, P. H. Regan, B. Rubio, Y. Saito, H. Sakurai, Y. Shimizu, J. Simpson, P. A. Söderström, D. W. Stracener, T. Sumikama, R. Surman, H. Suzuki, M. Takechi, H. Takeda, A. Tarifeño-Saldivia, S. L. Thomas, M. Wolińska-Cichocka, P. J. Woods, X. X. Xu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Neutron emission probabilities and half-lives of 37 β-delayed neutron emitters from Ni75 to Br92 were measured at the RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan, including 11 one-neutron and 13 two-neutron emission probabilities and six half-lives for the first time that supersede theoretical estimates. These nuclei lie in the path of the weak r process occurring in neutrino-driven winds from the accretion disk formed after the merger of two neutron stars synthesizing elements in the A∼80 abundance peak. The presence of such elements dominates the accompanying kilonova emission over the first few days and have been identified in the AT2017gfo event, associated to the gravitational wave detection GW170817. Abundance calculations based on over 17 000 simulated trajectories describing the evolution of matter properties in the merger outflows show that the new data lead to an increase of 50%-70% in the abundance of Y, Zr, Nb, and Mo. This enhancement is large compared to the scatter of relative abundances observed in old very metal poor stars and thus is significant in the comparison with other possible astrophysical processes contributing to the light-element production. These results underline the importance of including experimental decay data for very neutron-rich β-delayed neutron emitters into r-process models.

Original language	English
Article number	172701
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	134
Issue number	17
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.172701
State	Published - May 2 2025

Funding

This experiment was performed at the RI Beam Factory operated by RIKEN Nishina Center and CNS, University of Tokyo. Work supported by Spanish grants MINECO FPA2014-52823-C2-1-P, MICINN/AEI FPA2017-83946-C2-1-P, and MICINN/AEI PID2019–104714 GB-C21, cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund. Partially supported by Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEO/2019/007. A. A. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Project-ID 279384907—SFB 1245 and by the State of Hesse within the Research Cluster ELEMENTS (Project ID 500/10.006). A. T. D. acknowledges support from predoctoral fellowship BES-2015-075066, and Academy of Finland. A. I. M.’s work was supported by Generalitat Valenciana (CISEJI/2022/25), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (CAS22/00114 and CNS2023-144871). This work has been supported by the Office of Nuclear Physics, U. S. Department of Energy under the Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 (ORNL). I. D. and R. C. F. were supported by the Canadian NSERC grant SAPIN 2014-00028 and 2019-00030. M. R. acknowledges support from the Juan de la Cierva programme (FJC2021-046688-I) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU, supported from Grant No. PID2021-127495NB-I00 and ESF Investing in your future. Additionally, he acknowledges support from the Astrophysics and High Energy Physics programme and the Prometeo excellence programme of the Generalitat Valenciana (ASFAE/2022/026 and CIPROM/2022/13). G. K. K.’s work was supported by NKFIH (K147010). M. P. S. acknowledges the funding support from the Polish National Science Center under Grant No. 2020/36/T/ST2/00547. A. K. acknowledges the funding support from the Polish National Science Center under Grant No. 2020/39/B/ST2/02346. A. A. acknowledges partial support of the JSPS Invitational Fellowships for Research in Japan (ID: L1955). S. B. acknowledges the funding support from the Korean National Research Foundation Grant No. NRF-2015H1A2A103027 and No. NRF-21A20131111123. B. M. acknowledges the support from Institute for Basic Science in Republic of Korea (Grant No. IBS-R031-Y1). S. N. acknowledges the JSPS KAKENHI (Grants No. 17H06090, No. 20H05648, No. 22H04946, No. 25H01273) and the RIKEN program for Evolution of Matter in the Universe (r-EMU and RiNA-Net). UK authors were supported by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council through Grant No. ST/P004598/1 and No. ST/V001027/1. D. A.’s work was supported by Institute for Basic Science (Grant No. IBS-R031-D1). P. A. S. acknowledges the contract PN 23.21.01.06 sponsored by the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitalization.

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10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.172701

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Tolosa-Delgado, A., Tain, J. L., Reichert, M., Arcones, A., Eichler, M., Rasco, B. C., Brewer, N. T., Rykaczewski, K. P., Yokoyama, R., Grzywacz, R., Dillmann, I., Agramunt, J., Ahn, D. S., Algora, A., Baba, H., Bae, S., Bruno, C. G., Caballero Folch, R., Calvino, F., ... Xu, X. X. (2025). Impact of Newly Measured β -Delayed Neutron Emitters around Ni 78 on Light Element Nucleosynthesis in the Neutrino Wind Following a Neutron Star Merger. Physical Review Letters, 134(17), Article 172701. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.172701

@article{d074333469764aad92bd538a7cf8f0a2,

title = "Impact of Newly Measured β -Delayed Neutron Emitters around Ni 78 on Light Element Nucleosynthesis in the Neutrino Wind Following a Neutron Star Merger",

abstract = "Neutron emission probabilities and half-lives of 37 β-delayed neutron emitters from Ni75 to Br92 were measured at the RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan, including 11 one-neutron and 13 two-neutron emission probabilities and six half-lives for the first time that supersede theoretical estimates. These nuclei lie in the path of the weak r process occurring in neutrino-driven winds from the accretion disk formed after the merger of two neutron stars synthesizing elements in the A∼80 abundance peak. The presence of such elements dominates the accompanying kilonova emission over the first few days and have been identified in the AT2017gfo event, associated to the gravitational wave detection GW170817. Abundance calculations based on over 17 000 simulated trajectories describing the evolution of matter properties in the merger outflows show that the new data lead to an increase of 50\%-70\% in the abundance of Y, Zr, Nb, and Mo. This enhancement is large compared to the scatter of relative abundances observed in old very metal poor stars and thus is significant in the comparison with other possible astrophysical processes contributing to the light-element production. These results underline the importance of including experimental decay data for very neutron-rich β-delayed neutron emitters into r-process models.",

author = "A. Tolosa-Delgado and Tain, \{J. L.\} and M. Reichert and A. Arcones and M. Eichler and Rasco, \{B. C.\} and Brewer, \{N. T.\} and Rykaczewski, \{K. P.\} and R. Yokoyama and R. Grzywacz and I. Dillmann and J. Agramunt and Ahn, \{D. S.\} and A. Algora and H. Baba and S. Bae and Bruno, \{C. G.\} and \{Caballero Folch\}, R. and F. Calvino and Coleman-Smith, \{P. J.\} and G. Cortes and T. Davinson and C. Domingo-Pardo and A. Estrade and N. Fukuda and S. Go and Griffin, \{C. J.\} and J. Ha and O. Hall and L. Harkness-Brennan and T. Isobe and D. Kahl and M. Karny and Khiem, \{L. H.\} and Kiss, \{G. G.\} and M. Kogimtzis and A. Korgul and S. Kubono and M. Labiche and I. Lazarus and J. Liang and J. Lee and J. Liu and G. Lorusso and K. Matsui and K. Miernik and F. Montes and B. Moon and Morales, \{A. I.\} and N. Nepal and S. Nishimura and Page, \{R. D.\} and M. Piersa-Si{\l}kowska and Phong, \{V. H.\} and Zs Podoly{\'a}k and Pucknell, \{V. F.E.\} and Regan, \{P. H.\} and B. Rubio and Y. Saito and H. Sakurai and Y. Shimizu and J. Simpson and S{\"o}derstr{\"o}m, \{P. A.\} and Stracener, \{D. W.\} and T. Sumikama and R. Surman and H. Suzuki and M. Takechi and H. Takeda and A. Tarife{\~n}o-Saldivia and Thomas, \{S. L.\} and M. Woli{\'n}ska-Cichocka and Woods, \{P. J.\} and Xu, \{X. X.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the {"}https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/{"}Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by CERN.",

year = "2025",

month = may,

day = "2",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.172701",

language = "English",

volume = "134",

journal = "Physical Review Letters",

issn = "0031-9007",

publisher = "American Physical Society",

number = "17",

}

Tolosa-Delgado, A, Tain, JL, Reichert, M, Arcones, A, Eichler, M, Rasco, BC, Brewer, NT, Rykaczewski, KP, Yokoyama, R, Grzywacz, R, Dillmann, I, Agramunt, J, Ahn, DS, Algora, A, Baba, H, Bae, S, Bruno, CG, Caballero Folch, R, Calvino, F, Coleman-Smith, PJ, Cortes, G, Davinson, T, Domingo-Pardo, C, Estrade, A, Fukuda, N, Go, S, Griffin, CJ, Ha, J, Hall, O, Harkness-Brennan, L, Isobe, T, Kahl, D, Karny, M, Khiem, LH, Kiss, GG, Kogimtzis, M, Korgul, A, Kubono, S, Labiche, M, Lazarus, I, Liang, J, Lee, J, Liu, J, Lorusso, G, Matsui, K, Miernik, K, Montes, F, Moon, B, Morales, AI, Nepal, N, Nishimura, S, Page, RD, Piersa-Siłkowska, M, Phong, VH, Podolyák, Z, Pucknell, VFE, Regan, PH, Rubio, B, Saito, Y, Sakurai, H, Shimizu, Y, Simpson, J, Söderström, PA, Stracener, DW, Sumikama, T, Surman, R, Suzuki, H, Takechi, M, Takeda, H, Tarifeño-Saldivia, A, Thomas, SL, Wolińska-Cichocka, M, Woods, PJ & Xu, XX 2025, 'Impact of Newly Measured β -Delayed Neutron Emitters around Ni 78 on Light Element Nucleosynthesis in the Neutrino Wind Following a Neutron Star Merger', Physical Review Letters, vol. 134, no. 17, 172701. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.172701

TY - JOUR

T1 - Impact of Newly Measured β -Delayed Neutron Emitters around Ni 78 on Light Element Nucleosynthesis in the Neutrino Wind Following a Neutron Star Merger

AU - Tolosa-Delgado, A.

AU - Tain, J. L.

AU - Reichert, M.

AU - Arcones, A.

AU - Eichler, M.

AU - Rasco, B. C.

AU - Brewer, N. T.

AU - Rykaczewski, K. P.

AU - Yokoyama, R.

AU - Grzywacz, R.

AU - Dillmann, I.

AU - Agramunt, J.

AU - Ahn, D. S.

AU - Algora, A.

AU - Baba, H.

AU - Bae, S.

AU - Bruno, C. G.

AU - Caballero Folch, R.

AU - Calvino, F.

AU - Coleman-Smith, P. J.

AU - Cortes, G.

AU - Davinson, T.

AU - Domingo-Pardo, C.

AU - Estrade, A.

AU - Fukuda, N.

AU - Go, S.

AU - Griffin, C. J.

AU - Ha, J.

AU - Hall, O.

AU - Harkness-Brennan, L.

AU - Isobe, T.

AU - Kahl, D.

AU - Karny, M.

AU - Khiem, L. H.

AU - Kiss, G. G.

AU - Kogimtzis, M.

AU - Korgul, A.

AU - Kubono, S.

AU - Labiche, M.

AU - Lazarus, I.

AU - Liang, J.

AU - Lee, J.

AU - Liu, J.

AU - Lorusso, G.

AU - Matsui, K.

AU - Miernik, K.

AU - Montes, F.

AU - Moon, B.

AU - Morales, A. I.

AU - Nepal, N.

AU - Nishimura, S.

AU - Page, R. D.

AU - Piersa-Siłkowska, M.

AU - Phong, V. H.

AU - Podolyák, Zs

AU - Pucknell, V. F.E.

AU - Regan, P. H.

AU - Rubio, B.

AU - Saito, Y.

AU - Sakurai, H.

AU - Shimizu, Y.

AU - Simpson, J.

AU - Söderström, P. A.

AU - Stracener, D. W.

AU - Sumikama, T.

AU - Surman, R.

AU - Suzuki, H.

AU - Takechi, M.

AU - Takeda, H.

AU - Tarifeño-Saldivia, A.

AU - Thomas, S. L.

AU - Wolińska-Cichocka, M.

AU - Woods, P. J.

AU - Xu, X. X.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by CERN.

PY - 2025/5/2

Y1 - 2025/5/2

N2 - Neutron emission probabilities and half-lives of 37 β-delayed neutron emitters from Ni75 to Br92 were measured at the RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan, including 11 one-neutron and 13 two-neutron emission probabilities and six half-lives for the first time that supersede theoretical estimates. These nuclei lie in the path of the weak r process occurring in neutrino-driven winds from the accretion disk formed after the merger of two neutron stars synthesizing elements in the A∼80 abundance peak. The presence of such elements dominates the accompanying kilonova emission over the first few days and have been identified in the AT2017gfo event, associated to the gravitational wave detection GW170817. Abundance calculations based on over 17 000 simulated trajectories describing the evolution of matter properties in the merger outflows show that the new data lead to an increase of 50%-70% in the abundance of Y, Zr, Nb, and Mo. This enhancement is large compared to the scatter of relative abundances observed in old very metal poor stars and thus is significant in the comparison with other possible astrophysical processes contributing to the light-element production. These results underline the importance of including experimental decay data for very neutron-rich β-delayed neutron emitters into r-process models.

AB - Neutron emission probabilities and half-lives of 37 β-delayed neutron emitters from Ni75 to Br92 were measured at the RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan, including 11 one-neutron and 13 two-neutron emission probabilities and six half-lives for the first time that supersede theoretical estimates. These nuclei lie in the path of the weak r process occurring in neutrino-driven winds from the accretion disk formed after the merger of two neutron stars synthesizing elements in the A∼80 abundance peak. The presence of such elements dominates the accompanying kilonova emission over the first few days and have been identified in the AT2017gfo event, associated to the gravitational wave detection GW170817. Abundance calculations based on over 17 000 simulated trajectories describing the evolution of matter properties in the merger outflows show that the new data lead to an increase of 50%-70% in the abundance of Y, Zr, Nb, and Mo. This enhancement is large compared to the scatter of relative abundances observed in old very metal poor stars and thus is significant in the comparison with other possible astrophysical processes contributing to the light-element production. These results underline the importance of including experimental decay data for very neutron-rich β-delayed neutron emitters into r-process models.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105004210952

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.172701

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.172701

M3 - Article

C2 - 40408715

AN - SCOPUS:105004210952

SN - 0031-9007

VL - 134

JO - Physical Review Letters

JF - Physical Review Letters

IS - 17

M1 - 172701

ER -

Impact of Newly Measured β -Delayed Neutron Emitters around Ni 78 on Light Element Nucleosynthesis in the Neutrino Wind Following a Neutron Star Merger

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