Astrophysical constraints from gamma-ray spectroscopy

Abstract

Gamma-ray lines from cosmic sources provide unique isotopic information, since they originate from energy level transitions in the atomic nucleus. Gamma-ray telescopes explored this astronomical window in the past three decades, detecting radioactive isotopes that have been ejected in interstellar space by cosmic nucleosynthesis events and nuclei that have been excited through collisions with energetic particles. Short-lived radioactivities have been detected in a couple of supernovae (56Co and 57Co in SN1987A, 44Ti in Cas A), the diffuse glow of long-lived 26Al has been mapped along the entire plane of the Galaxy, several excited nuclei have been detected in solar flares, and, last but not least, positron annihilation has been observed in the inner Galaxy since the 70ies. Recent imaging and line shape measurements of e-/e+ annihilation emission from the Galactic bulge can hardly be accounted for by conventional sources of positrons; recent 26Al emission and line width measurement from the inner Galaxy and from the Cygnus region can constrain the properties of the interstellar medium; a diffuse 60Fe gamma-ray line emission appears rather weak, in view of current theoretical predictions. Recent Galactic core-collapse supernovae are studied through 44Ti radioactivity, but, apart from Cas A, no other source has been found. The characteristic signature of 22Na-line emission from a nearby O-Ne-Mg novae is expected to be measured during INTEGRAL's lifetime.

30 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in Nucl.Phys.A, special volume on Nuclear Astrophysics, Eds. K.-H. Langanke, F.-K. Thielemann, M. Wiescher

References in corpus (19)

• MeV Dark Matter: Has It Been Detected?
• Early SPI/INTEGRAL measurements of galactic 511 keV line emission from positron annihilation
• Evolution, Explosion and Nucleosynthesis of Core Collapse Supernovae
• Bipolar Supernova Explosions: Nucleosynthesis & Implication on Abundances in Extremely Metal-Poor Stars
• A Million-Second Chandra View of Cassiopeia A
• Early SPI/INTEGRAL contraints on the morphology of the 511 keV line emission in the 4th galactic quadrant
• On the Determination of Ejecta Structure and Explosion Asymmetry from the X-ray Knots of Cassiopeia A
• SPI/INTEGRAL in-flight performance
• The late-time light curve of the Type Ia supernova 2000cx
• High-Resolution Spectroscopy of Gamma-Ray Lines from the X-Class Solar Flare of 23 July, 2002
• New estimates of the contribution of Wolf--Rayet stellar winds to the Galactic 26Al
• The Light Curve of Supernova 1987A: The Structure of the Presupernova and Radioactive Nickel Mixing
• Radioactive Al26 and Fe60 in the Milky Way: implications of the RHESSI detection of Fe60
• The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager observation of the 1809 keV line from Galactic 26Al
• SPI Measurements of Galactic 26Al
• Modelling the nova rate in galaxies
• 44Ti radioactivity in young supernova remnants: Cas A and SN 1987A
• Cross sections relevant to gamma-ray line emission in solar flares: ${}^3$He-induced reactions on ${}^{16}$O nuclei
• Line shape diagnostics of Galactic 26Al

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Liquid Xenon Detectors for Particle Physics and Astrophysics
• Origin of the Fermi Bubble
• Production of 26Al, 44Ti, and 60Fe in Core-Collapse Supernovae: Sensitivity to the Rates of the Triple Alpha and 12C(a,g)16O Reactions
• Positron transport in the interstellar medium
• The Impact of Helium-Burning Reaction Rates on Massive Star Evolution and Nucleosynthesis
• A Spallation Model for the Titanium-rich Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
• Nuclear astrophysics with radioactive ions at FAIR
• Nucleosynthesis from massive stars 50 years after B2FH
• Lower limits on the nucleosynthezis of ${}^{44}$Ti and ${}^{60}$Fe in the dynamic spiral-arms model
• Introduction to Astronomy with Radioactivity
• Astrophysics with radioactive isotopes
• Microscopic folding model analysis of the radiative $(n,\gamma )$ reactions near the $Z=28$ shell-closure and the weak s-process
• Nuclear Astrophysics with Gamma-ray-ray Line Observations
• Dark Supernova Remnants revealed by CO-line Bubbles in the W43 Molecular Complex along the 4-kpc Arm
• Updated Constraints on the Injection Energy of Positrons Generating the Galactic 511 keV $\gamma$-ray line
• Revisiting electron-capture decay for Galactic cosmic-ray data