PHYS/ASTR Colloquium: "Heavy element nucleosynthesis & kilonovae from compact object mergers" - Dr. Sanjana Curtis (NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, U.C. Berkeley)

From the gallium in our semiconductors to the gold in our jewelry, heavy elements occupy myriad roles in human life. But how did these elements come to exist? This question lies at the heart of my talk, which will focus on two nucleosynthesis sites -- binary neutron star mergers and black hole- neutron star mergers -- and the accompanying kilonova transients. Kilonovae are the only direct observational evidence of heavy element nucleosynthesis in situ and thus hold great promise for uncovering how and where heavy elements are made. While the landmark detection of the kilonova AT2017gfo confirmed that neutron star mergers are a site of the r-process, several open questions remain when it comes to the details of nucleosynthesis in merger ejecta and features of kilonova light curves. In this talk, I will present our latest predictions based on cutting-edge, general- relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We include important neutrino physics that sets the electron fraction of the ejecta, and in turn, the heavy element abundances. I will show how detailed numerical modeling can allow us to link kilonovae to their progenitors, interpret past and future observations of these transients, and gain unprecedented insight into the origin of heavy elements.