RESEARCH

Binary Neutron Star Mergers are an ideal site for the production of r-process elements. Seed nuclei expand outward from the merger through neutron rich material rapidly capturing neutrons to produce heavy unstable nuclei. As those unstable nuclei decay, they power the light signal associated with a BNS merger, the kilonova. Some of the ejecta launched from the system is theorized to travel so quickly that free neutrons escape capture by the r-process and are free to decay on their own powering an Ultra-Violet precursor to the kilonova that dominates the light signal on the timescale of hours after the merger. Previous simulations that have resolved this Fast Ejecta disagree on how much free neutron ejecta we should expect based on the simulation type (Smoothed Particle hydrodynamics simulations producing about 100x as much as in comparable grid based simulations). The amount of free neutron ejecta has implications on the observability of the UV precursor should we follow up a gravitational wave event fast enough to observe this. One aspect of my research is investigating this difference in free neutron ejecta quantity and whether it can be explained by simply underresolving the ejecta in previous grid-based simulations.