Abstract
If an accretion disk gets hotter than a few MeV, nuclei in the infailing matter are dissociated into their constituent neutrons and protons. Neutrons released by dissociation of matter falling at high accretion rates into a black hole or neutron star accumulate in a dense 'neutron torus'. Matter in accretion disks around compact objects like those responsible for galactic X-ray sources may thus provide ideal conditions for classical rapid or r-process nucleosynthesis1. Systems in which accretion powers an outflow from a region near the compact object might thereby enrich the interstellar medium in r-process elements. These elements are usually thought to originate in other stellar environments, such as helium shell-flash, supernovae and tidally dispersed neutron stars2–5. Nucleosynthesis of lighter elements (C,N,O...) in accretion disks has been discussed recently in refs 6 and 7; the r-process mechanism considered here was inspired by some ideas8,9 for manufacturing deuterium in pregalactic accretion disks.
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References
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Hogan, C., Applegate, J. Neutron tori and the origin of r-process elements. Nature 330, 236–238 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/330236a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/330236a0
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