Related papers: Astrophysics with Radioactive Atomic Nuclei
Circumnuclear star forming regions, also called hotspots, are often found in the inner regions of some spiral galaxies where intense processes of star formation are taking place. In the UV, massive stars dominate the observed circumnuclear…
Recent high energy gamma-ray observations of both single supernova remnants and superbubbles, together with observations of supernovae, star formation regions, and local cosmic ray composition, now provide an integrated framework tying…
The last few years have seen gamma-ray astronomy maturing and advancing in the field of time-domain astronomy, utilizing source variability on timescales over many orders of magnitudes, from a decade down to a few minutes and shorter,…
Nuclear reactions in stars are difficult to measure directly in the laboratory at the small astrophysical energies. In recent years indirect methods with rare isotopes have been developed and applied to extract low-energy astrophysical…
Since their first discovery in the late 1960s, Gamma-ray bursts have attracted an exponentially growing interest from the international community due to their central role in the most highly debated open questions of the modern research of…
Gamma-ray lines from radioactive isotopes, ejected into interstellar space by cosmic nucleosynthesis events, are observed with new space telescopes. The Compton Observatory had provided a sky survey for the isotopes 56Co, 22Na, 44Ti, and…
Supernovae constitute a critical source of energy input to the interstellar medium (ISM). In this short review, we focus on their latest phase of evolution, the supernova remnants (SNRs). We present observations of three old SNRs that have…
In the past few years, gamma-ray astronomy has entered a golden age thanks to two major breakthroughs: Cherenkov telescopes on the ground and the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi satellite. The sample of supernova remnants…
After reviewing some of the basic concepts, nomenclatures and parametrizations of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology, we introduce a few central problems in Nuclear Astrophysics, including the hot-CNO cycle, helium burning in massive…
Recent studies show the importance of feedback in the evolution of the star formation rate in the Universe. However, the nature and physics of the feedback are still pressing questions. Radio continuum observations can provide unique…
Nuclear physics offers us a powerful tool: using nuclear resonance absorption lines to infer the physical conditions in astrophysical settings which are otherwise difficult to deduce. Present-day technology provides an increase in…
Galactic cosmic rays are believed to be accelerated at supernova remnant shocks. Gamma-ray observations of both supernova remnants and associated molecular clouds have been used in several occasions to test (so far quite successfully) this…
Half a century has passed since the foundation of nuclear astrophysics. Since then, this discipline has reached its maturity. Today, nuclear astrophysics constitutes a multidisciplinary crucible of knowledge that combines the achievements…
Recent X-ray observations have had a major impact on topics ranging from protostars to cosmology. They have also drawn attention to important and general physical processes that currently limit our understanding of thermal and nonthermal…
In this review, we emphasize the interplay between astrophysical observations, modeling, and nuclear physics laboratory experiments. Several important nuclear cross sections for astrophysics have long been identified e.g.…
Gamma- and X-rays resulting from radioactive decays provide a potentially powerful tool to investigate the explosion physics of supernovae, since the distribution and the amount of radioactive isotopes are strongly dependent on properties…
The quest for the origin of the chemical elements, which we find in our body, in our planet (Earth), in our star (Sun), or in our galaxy (Milky Way) could only be resolved with a thorough understanding of the nuclear physics properties of…
The origin of the extragalactic gamma-ray background is a pressing cosmological mystery. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has recently measured the intensity and spectrum of this background; both are substantially different from previous…
The last decade has been dense with new developments in the search for the sources of Galactic cosmic rays. Some of these developments have confirmed the tight connection between cosmic rays and supernovae in our Galaxy, through the…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved questions in astrophysics. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely associated with the most energetic processes…