Realistic fission models, new beta-decay half-lives and the r-process in neutron star mergers

Almost half of heavy nuclei beyond iron are considered to be produced by rapid neutron capture process (r-process). This process occurs in the neutron-rich environment such as core-collapse supernovae or neutron star mergers, but the main production site is still unknown. In the r-process of neutron star mergers, nuclear fission reactions play an important role. Also beta-decay half-lives of magic nuclei are crucial for the r-process. We have carried out r-process nucleosynthesis calculations based upon new theoretical estimates of fission fragment distributions and new beta-decay half-lives for N=82 nuclei measured at RIBF-RIKEN. We investigate the effect of nuclear fission on abundance patterns in the matter ejected from neutron star mergers with two different fission fragment mass distributions. We also discuss how the new experimental beta-decay half-lives affect the r-process.