Erlangen 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 25: Nuclear Astrophysics III

HK 25.1: Gruppenbericht

Mittwoch, 18. März 2026, 13:45–14:15, PHIL A 602

Collisional Radiative Data for non-LTE Kilonova Radiative Transfer — •Andreas Flörs¹, Ricardo Silva², and Gabriel Martínez-Pinedo¹ — ¹GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany — ²Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), Lisboa, Portugal

Recent infrared spectroscopy from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has transformed kilonova studies, with detailed nebular-phase spectra now available for AT 2023vfi, the second spectroscopically observed kilonova and the counterpart to GRB 230307A. Observations reveal rich mid-infrared emission, with features tentatively attributed to r-process elements such as tellurium. These data extend well beyond what was possible for the first kilonova AT2017gfo and highlight the need for robust atomic and collisional data to interpret kilonova spectra in the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) regime.

Non-LTE radiative transfer modelling of kilonovae relies on comprehensive collisional-radiative datasets, including electron impact excitation and forbidden transitions for heavy ions. In this talk, I will present calibrated large-scale collisional-radiative atomic structure calculations for lanthanide ions, and show how their inclusion in radiative transfer models improves agreement with JWST observations of AT2023vfi. These results enable more robust elemental abundance determinations and provide new constraints on r-process nucleosynthesis.

AF and GMP acknowledge support by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Advanced Grant KILONOVA No. 885281).

Keywords: Atomic Structure; Neutron Star Mergers; Kilonova; R-Process; Radiative Transfer