Speaker
Description
Heavy-element abundances produced by the r-process remain difficult to determine observationally because few direct spectroscopic tracers are available. In this work, we investigate the chemical evolution of tellurium-bearing species in binary neutron star merger ejecta through post-processing calculations based on hydrodynamic simulations and whether heavy-element molecules can provide such tracers. An extended chemical network including tellurium-bearing molecules is employed to follow the formation and destruction of heavy-element species under evolving ejecta conditions. The resulting molecular abundances are used to estimate rotational line emission through quantum chemically derived molecular constants and spectroscopic modeling. In addition to assessing the molecular inventory of the ejecta, the calculations provide constraints on the formation of molecular species that may act as precursors to refractory dust. The predicted column densities indicate that several tellurium-bearing molecules can form under favorable conditions, although their abundances remain insufficient to produce observable molecular emission with current facilities. The strongest predicted rotational transition, originating from CS, lies approximately 9 orders of magnitude below the sensitivity limit of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). While a direct detection is therefore unlikely with present-day instruments, this work establishes a framework for connecting heavy-element chemistry, dust precursor formation, and molecular spectroscopy in r-process ejecta. These results provide new insight into the chemical evolution of explosive astrophysical environments and offer guidance for future searches for molecular signatures of heavy-element nucleosynthesis.