Lanthanide Features in Near-infrared Spectra of Kilonovae

The observations of GW170817/AT2017gfo have provided us with evidence thatbinary neutron star mergers are sites of $r$-process nucleosynthesis. However,the observed signatures in the spectra of GW170817/AT2017gfo have not beenfully decoded especially in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. In this paper,we investigate the kilonova spectra over the entire wavelength range with theaim of elemental identification. We systematically calculate the strength ofbound-bound transitions by constructing a hybrid line list that is accurate forimportant strong transitions and complete for weak transitions. We find thatthe elements on the left side of the periodic table, such as Ca, Sr, Y, Zr, Ba,La, and Ce, tend to produce prominent absorption lines in the spectra. This isbecause such elements have a small number of valence electrons and low-lyingenergy levels, resulting in strong transitions. By performing self-consistentradiative transfer simulations for the entire ejecta, we find that La III andCe III appear in the NIR spectra, which can explain the absorption features at$\lambda\sim 12000$-14000 A in the spectra of GW170817/AT2017gfo. The massfractions of La and Ce are estimated to be $>2\times 10^{-6}$ and $\sim$(1-100)$\times 10^{-5}$, respectively. An actinide element Th can also be asource of absorption as the atomic structure is analogous to that of Ce.However, we show that Th III features are less prominent in the spectra becauseof the denser energy levels of actinides compared to those of lanthanides.