ENAF

Kilonovae

Despite being rare events, these mergers are violent enough to produce photons throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum (from the radio to hard X-rays and γ-ray) detectable at intergalactic distances. Indeed, these mergers typically result in the formation of a black hole surrounded by thick, massive (roughly solar mass) and hot accretion disk that accrete on a timescale of less than a second. These systems are expected to produce relativistic jets and are considered the most likely candidates for the central engine of short γ-ray bursts.

These mergers are one of the main target of gravitational wave detectors like LIGO, which is expected to detect them at distances as large as hundreds of Megaparsecs. More importantly for ENAF, NS mergers should result in the dynamical ejection of up to 1% of a solar mass of formerly NS matter due to tidal torques or shocks during the merger. These outflows are expected to be very neutron rich, because they are made of catalyzed neutron star material, and thus robustly produce r-process elements.