Modern Neutrino Physics in Neutron Star Merger Models

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Sherwood Richers is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at the University of California, Berkeley. He will perform computer simulations of the effect of subatomic particles called neutrinos on material ejected during the merger of two neutron stars. The treatment of neutrinos remains one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in modeling these events. Results from this research will allow astronomers to understand how heavy elements are formed in binary neutron star mergers, which are sources of gravitational waves. Along with this research, Richers will conduct astronomy outreach to high school and college students in Central America.This research project will incorporate key physical processes, including neutrino transport, collisions, and flavor transformation, into existing large-scale computer codes used for modeling neutron star mergers. The central thrust of the project is a rigorous treatment of the impact of neutrino flavor transformation on merger ejecta. Including this critical missing process in models will permit a thorough interpretation of light curves from binary neutron star mergers, and allow a better understanding of heavy-element nucleosynthesis in such mergers. This project advances the goals of the NSF Windows on the Universe Big Idea.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.