Alexander Hall-Smith (York)

A common envelope event is often used to explain the formation of binary systems that have no other mechanism for production. For two neutron stars to form in a close binary the precursor event is thought to be a common envelope surrounding a neutron star and its companion. Throughout this phase, material from the companion can be accreted onto the neutron star, during which the material undergoes high temperature and pressure changes, which can lead to nucleosynthesis of heavier elements. Due to the composition of the companion this event is thought to be similar to that of an X-ray burst and so could synthesise proton rich heavy elements along the rp-process reaction chains. Whereas the material in an X-ray burst is trapped on the surface of the neutron star, this phase is thought to expel the material into the interstellar medium at the end of the common envelope event. This talk will discuss the results of single zone post processing nucleosynthesis (PPN) studies conducted using NuGrid for a series of trajectories across different accretion rates.