On a spectral method for β-particle bound excitation collisions in kilonovae
The Astrophysical Journal(2024)
Abstract
The interaction of β-particles with the weakly ionized plasma
background is an important mechanism for powering the kilonova transient signal
from neutron star mergers. For this purpose, we present an implementation of
the approximate fast-particle collision kernel, described by
following the seminal formulation of , in a spectral solver of
the Vlasov-Maxwell-Boltzmann equations. In particular, we expand the
fast-particle plane-wave atomic excitation kernel into coefficients of the
Hermite basis, and derive the relevant discrete spectral system. In this
fast-particle limit, the approach permits the direct use of atomic data,
including optical oscillator strengths, normally applied to photon-matter
interaction. The resulting spectral matrix is implemented in the MASS-APP
spectral solver framework, in a way that avoids full matrix storage per spatial
zone. We numerically verify aspects of the matrix construction, and present a
proof-of-principle 3D simulation of a 2D axisymmetric kilonova ejecta snapshot.
Our preliminary numerical results indicate that a reasonable choice of Hermite
basis parameters for β-particles in the kilonova are a bulk velocity
parameter u⃗=0, a thermal velocity parameter α⃗=0.5c, and a
9x9x9 mode velocity basis set (Hermite orders 0 to 8 in each dimension). The
results suggest that large-angle scatters of β-particles may be a
non-negligible power source for kilonova luminosity and spectra.
MoreTranslated text
Key words
Neutron stars,Plasma physics
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