The mergers of binary neutron stars, as well as black hole-neutron star systems, are expected to produce an electromagnetic counterpart that can be analyzed to infer the element synthesis that occurred in these events. We investigate one source of uncertainties pertinent to lanthanide-rich outflows: the nuclear inputs to rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis calculations. We begin by examining thirty-two different combinations of nuclear inputs: eight mass models, two types of spontaneous fission rates, and two types of fission daughter product distributions. We find that such nuclear physics uncertainties typically generate at least one order of magnitude uncertainty in key quantities such as the nuclear heating (one and a half orders of magnitude at one day post-merger), the bolometric luminosity (one order of magnitude at five days post-merger), and the inferred mass of material from the bolometric luminosity (factor of eight when considering the eight to ten days region). Since particular nuclear processes are critical for determining the electromagnetic signal, we provide tables of key nuclei undergoing $\beta$-decay, $\alpha$-decay, and spontaneous fission important for heating at different times, identifying decays that are common among the many nuclear input combinations.

中文翻译：

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Kilonova 光曲线建模：依赖于核输入

双中子星以及黑洞-中子星系统的合并预计会产生一个电磁对应物，可以对其进行分析以推断这些事件中发生的元素合成。我们调查了与富含镧系元素流出相关的不确定性的一个来源：快速中子捕获核合成计算的核输入。我们首先检查核输入的 32 种不同组合：八种质量模型、两种类型的自发裂变率和两种类型的裂变子产物分布。我们发现，这种核物理不确定性通常会在关键数量上产生至少一个数量级的不确定性，例如核加热（合并后一天的一个半数量级）、辐射热光度（五个数量级的一个数量级）合并后天数），以及从热光度推断出的物质质量（考虑八到十天区域时为八倍）。由于特定的核过程对于确定电磁信号至关重要，我们提供了经历 $\beta$-衰变、$\alpha$-衰变和自发裂变的关键核的表格，这些核对不同时间的加热很重要，确定了许多核输入组合。