{"title":"Do we owe our existence to gravitational waves?","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.physletb.2024.139028","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Two heavy elements essential to human biology are thought to have been produced by the astrophysical <em>r</em>-process, which occurs in neutron-rich environments: iodine is a constituent of thyroid hormones that affect many physiological processes including growth and development, body temperature and heart rate, and bromine is essential for tissue development and architecture. Collisions of neutron stars (kilonovae) have been identified as sources of <em>r</em>-process elements including tellurium, which is adjacent to iodine in the periodic table, and lanthanides. Neutron-star collisions arise from energy loss due to gravitational-wave emission from binary systems, leading us to suggest that gravitational waves have played a key role in enabling human life by producing iodine and bromine. We propose probing this proposal by searching in lunar material for live <sup>129</sup>I deposited by a recent nearby kilonova explosion.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":20162,"journal":{"name":"Physics Letters B","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269324005860/pdfft?md5=4af667b6b95d3c6b5ba7ffb6066dd393&pid=1-s2.0-S0370269324005860-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Physics Letters B","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269324005860","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Two heavy elements essential to human biology are thought to have been produced by the astrophysical r-process, which occurs in neutron-rich environments: iodine is a constituent of thyroid hormones that affect many physiological processes including growth and development, body temperature and heart rate, and bromine is essential for tissue development and architecture. Collisions of neutron stars (kilonovae) have been identified as sources of r-process elements including tellurium, which is adjacent to iodine in the periodic table, and lanthanides. Neutron-star collisions arise from energy loss due to gravitational-wave emission from binary systems, leading us to suggest that gravitational waves have played a key role in enabling human life by producing iodine and bromine. We propose probing this proposal by searching in lunar material for live 129I deposited by a recent nearby kilonova explosion.
有两种对人类生物学至关重要的重元素被认为是由发生在富中子环境中的天体物理学 r 过程产生的：碘是甲状腺激素的成分，甲状腺激素影响着许多生理过程，包括生长和发育、体温和心率；溴对组织发育和结构至关重要。中子星（千新星）的碰撞已被确定为 r 过程元素的来源，包括在元素周期表中与碘相邻的碲和镧系元素。中子星碰撞产生于双星系统的引力波发射导致的能量损失，因此我们认为引力波通过产生碘和溴，在人类生活中发挥了关键作用。我们建议通过在月球物质中寻找最近附近的千新星爆炸所沉积的活129I来探测这一建议。
期刊介绍：
Physics Letters B ensures the rapid publication of important new results in particle physics, nuclear physics and cosmology. Specialized editors are responsible for contributions in experimental nuclear physics, theoretical nuclear physics, experimental high-energy physics, theoretical high-energy physics, and astrophysics.
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