Dust formation in macronovae

Abstract

We examine dust formation in macronovae (as known as kilonovae), which are the bright ejecta of neutron star binary mergers and one of the leading sites of r-process nucleosynthesis. In light of information about the first macronova candidate associated with GRB 130603B, we find that dust grains of r-process elements have difficulty forming because of the low number density of the r-process atoms, while carbon or elements lighter than iron can condense into dust if they are abundant. Dust grains absorb emission from ejecta with an opacity even greater than that of the r-process elements, and re-emit photons at infrared wavelengths. Such dust emission can potentially account for macronovae without r-process nucleosynthesis as an alternative model. This dust scenario predicts a spectrum with fewer features than the r-process model and day-scale optical-to-ultraviolet emission. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.