Pantheon SEMPARIS Le serveur des séminaires parisiens Paris

Status Confirmed
Seminar Series APC-COLLOQUIUM
Subjects hep-th
Date Wednesday 22 January 2025
Time 11:00
Institute APC
Seminar Room 454A-Luc Valentin
Speaker's Last Name Lattimer
Speaker's First Name James
Speaker's Email Address
Speaker's Institution State University of New York at Stony Brook
Title The history of the r-process
Abstract The rich history of the r-process, which began with geochemists and involves more than a dozen Nobel laureates, is reviewed in this talk. The r-process is the mechanism by which half of all nuclei heavier than iron are created, and involves intense fluxes and rapid captures of neutrons. However, its astrophysical site has long been debated. The recent LIGO/VIRGO detection of gravitational radiation from GW170817 bears the clear signature of a binary neutron star merger and validated a number of theoretical predictions. These included the observations of a short gamma-ray burst 1.7s following the merger, and an extended optical/infrared afterglow lasting weeks. The afterglow is the predicted signal of radioactive decays from decompressing neutron-rich matter catastrophically ejected from the merging stars and provides solid evidence that neutron star mergers are a major, if not primary, source of r-process nuclei. Although this idea was proposed nearly 45 years ago by David Schramm and myself, it was largely ignored in favor of a supernova mechanism. Over the last decade, however, evidence has been accumulating in its favor. GW170817 may have finally settled this question, which has been one of the thorniest problems in nuclear physics and astrophysics. This talk presents my personal perspectives of this paradigm shift.
arXiv Preprint Number
Comments https://apc.u-paris.fr/APC_CS/fr/colloquium-apc-history-r-process
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