Nuclear-Astrophysics Lessons from INTEGRAL

Abstract

Measurements of high-energy photons from cosmic sources of nuclear radiation through ESA's INTEGRAL mission have advanced our knowledge: New data with high spectral resolution showed that characteristic gamma-ray lines from radioactive decays occur throughout the Galaxy, in its interstellar medium and from sources. Although the number of detected sources and often the significance of the astrophysical results remain modest, conclusions derived from this unique astronomical window of radiation originating from nuclear processes are important, complementing the widely-employed atomic-line based spectroscopy. We review the results and insights obtained in the past decade from gamma-ray line measurements of cosmic sources, in the context of their astrophysical questions.

Invited review. 30 pages, 26 figures. This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Reports on Progress in Physics. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at DOI 10.1088/0034-4885/76/2/026301

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Cited by in corpus (41)

• The e-ASTROGAM mission (exploring the extreme Universe with gamma rays in the MeV-GeV range)
• Production and Distribution of ${}^{44}$Ti and ${}^{56}$Ni in a Three-dimensional Supernova Model Resembling Cassiopeia A
• Radioactive nuclei from cosmochronology to habitability
• Frontiers in Nuclear Astrophysics
• First application of the Trojan Horse Method with a Radioactive Ion Beam: study of the ${}^{18}$F($p,\alpha$)${}^{15}$O}} reaction at astrophysical energies
• Magnetorotational supernovae: A nucleosynthetic analysis of sophisticated 3D models
• INTEGRAL/SPI $\gamma$-ray line spectroscopy
• Feedback by massive stars and the emergence of superbubbles II. X-ray properties
• Gamma-ray Astrophysics in the MeV Range: the ASTROGAM Concept and Beyond
• Gamma-ray Emission of 60Fe and 26Al Radioactivities in our Galaxy
• Galactic Chemical Evolution of Radioactive Isotopes
• ${}^{60}$Fe in core-collapse supernovae and prospects for X-ray and $\gamma$-ray detection in supernova remnants
• Aluminium-26 from massive binary stars I: non-rotating models
• Neutron star mergers as the astrophysical site of the r-process in the Milky Way and its satellite galaxies
• Stochastic Chemical Evolution of Radioactive Isotopes with a Monte Carlo Approach
• Finding the remnants of the Milky Way's last neutron star mergers
• Cosmic nucleosynthesis: a multi-messenger challenge
• Aluminium-26 from massive binary stars II. Rotating single stars up to core-collapse and their impact on the early Solar System
• Supernova explosions of massive stars and cosmic rays
• Nuclear processes in Astrophysics: Recent progress
• Gamma-Ray Emission Produced by $r$-process Elements from Neutron Star Mergers
• Galactic 26Al traces metal loss through hot chimneys
• The consequences of a nearby supernova on the early Solar System
• Synthetic ${}^{26}$Al emission from galactic-scale superbubble simulations
• Benchmarking simulations of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager with calibrations
• Recent results in nuclear astrophysics
• Shell and explosive hydrogen burning
• Reducing Uncertainties in the Production of the Gamma Emitting Nuclei 26Al, 44Ti, and 60Fe in Core Collapse Supernovae by Using Effective Helium Burning Rates
• Radioactively-Powered Gamma-Ray Transient Associated with a Kilonova from Neutron Star Merger
• The ${}^{59}$Fe(n, γ)${}^{60}$Fe Cross Section from the Surrogate Ratio Method and Its Effect on the ${}^{60}$Fe Nucleosynthesis
• Evolution of radioactive elements in the LMC: predictions for future gamma-ray surveys
• Theoretical Distributions of Short-Lived Radionuclides for Star Formation in Molecular Clouds
• Lower limits on the nucleosynthezis of ${}^{44}$Ti and ${}^{60}$Fe in the dynamic spiral-arms model
• New insights from cosmic gamma rays
• Gamma-ray line measurements from supernova explosions
• Background contributions in the electron-tracking Compton camera onboard SMILE-2+
• Production of heavy $\alpha$-elements and ${}^{44}$Ti in Cas A: comparison to abundances from 1D core-collapse supernova models and evidence for Carbon-Oxygen shell mergers
• SPI Measurements of Nucleosynthesis Gamma-Rays
• Cosmic Radioactivity and Galactic Chemical Evolution
• News from Cosmic Gamma-ray Line Observations
• Short-lived Radionuclides in the Milky Way Galaxy