Gamma rays from cosmic radioactivities

Abstract

Gamma rays from radioactive byproducts of cosmic nucleosynthesis are direct messengers from nuclear processes taking place in various cosmic sites, and can be measured with telescopes operated in space. Due to low detector sensitivity, up until now, only a handful of sources have been detected in that electromagnetic window. Cobalt lines from SN1987A and 44Ti lines from the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant offer unique constraints on the properties of the innermost regions of core collapse supernovae. Diffuse gamma-ray lines from the decay of radioactive 26Al and the annihilation of positrons are bright enough for mapping the Milky Way in the MeV regime, and are both measured by recent spaceborne spectrometers with unprecedented precision. This constrains the sources of Al production and the state of interstellar gas in the vicinity of these sites: the total mass of 26Al produced by stellar sources throughout the Galaxy is estimated to be ~3 M(sun) per Myr, and the interstellar medium near those sources appears to be characterized by velocities of ~100 km s^(-1). Positron annihilation must occur in a modestly ionized, warm phase of the interstellar medium, but at present the major positron production site(s) remain unknown. The spatial distribution of the annihilation gamma-ray emission constrains positron production sites and positron propagation in the Galaxy. 60Fe radioactivity has been clearly detected recently; the flux ratio relative to 26Al of about 15% is on the lower side of predictions from massive star and supernova nucleosynthesis models. Those views at nuclear and astrophysical processes in and around cosmic sources by space-based gamma-ray telescopes offer invaluable information on cosmic nucleosynthesis.