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.