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Neutron star mergers (NSMs) are promising astrophysical sites for the rapidneutron-capture ("$r$-") process, but can their integrated yields explain themajority of heavy-element material in the Galaxy? One method to address thisquestion has utilized a forward approach that propagates NSM rates and yieldsalong with stellar formation rates, in the end comparing those results withobserved chemical abundances of $r$-process-rich, metal-poor stars. In thiswork, we take the inverse approach by utilizing $r$-process-element abundanceratios of metal-poor stars as input to reconstruct the properties---especiallythe masses---of the neutron star (NS) binary progenitors of the $r$-processstars. This novel analysis provides an independent avenue for studying thepopulation of the original neutron star binary systems that merged and producedthe $r$-process material incorporated in Galactic metal-poor halo stars. We useratios of elements typically associated with the limited-$r$ process and theactinide region to those in the lanthanide region (i.e., Zr/Dy and Th/Dy) toprobe the NS masses of the progenitor merger. We find that NSMs can account forall $r$-process material in metal-poor stars that display $r$-processsignatures, while simultaneously reproducing the present-day distribution ofdouble-NS (DNS) systems. However, the most $r$-process enhanced stars (the$r$-II stars) on their own would require progenitor NSMs of very asymmetricsystems that are distinctly different from present ones in the Galaxy. As thisanalysis is model-dependent, we also explore variations in line with futureexpectation regarding potential theoretical and observational updates, andcomment on how these variations impact our results.

Reconstructing Masses of Merging Neutron Stars from Stellar $R$-Process Abundance Signatures