Related papers: Gamma-Rays from Positron Annihilation
The 511 keV electron-positron annihilation line, most recently characterized by the INTEGRAL/SPI experiment, is highly concentrated towards the Galactic centre. Its origin remains unknown despite decades of scrutiny. We propose a novel…
The all-sky survey in high-energy gamma rays (E > 30 MeV) carried out by the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) aboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory provides a unique opportunity to examine in detail the diffuse gamma-ray…
Observations of the Milky Way by the SPI/INTEGRAL satellite have confirmed the presence of a strong 511 KeV gamma-ray line emission from the bulge, which require an intense source of positrons in the galactic center. These observations are…
We analyse SPI/INTEGRAL data on the 511 keV line from the Galactic Centre, accumulated over ~6 years of observations. We decompose the X-ray and soft gamma-ray emission of the central part of the Milky Way into a relatively compact "Bulge"…
The Positron Puzzle is a half-century old conundrum about the origin of the Galactic $\gamma$-ray emission line at photon energies of 511 keV, and the shape of its morphology, showing a bulge-to-disk luminosity ratio of $\sim 1$ - unlike…
Since its launch INTEGRAL has devoted a significant fraction of its observing time to the Galactic plane region. We present the results of INTEGRAL observations of the inner spiral arms of the Galaxy (Norma, Scutum and Sagittarius) with…
The INTEGRAL satellite, which studies the Universe in the hard X-ray and soft Gamma-ray domain, has been operational for 5 years now. The X-ray telescopes, which use the coded mask technique, provide unprecedented spectral and imaging…
The bulk of the extragalactic background between 10 keV and 10 GeV is likely to be explained by the emission of Seyfert galaxies, type Ia supernovae, and blazars. However, as revealed by the INTEGRAL satellite, the bulge of our galaxy is an…
We study the origin of the positron excess observed in the local cosmic-ray spectrum at high energies, and relate it to the cosmic rays and gamma-ray emission across the entire Galaxy. In particular, we explore the hypothesis of a single,…
The Fermi satellite has recently detected gamma ray emission from the central regions of our Galaxy. This may be evidence for dark matter particles, a major component of the standard cosmological model, annihilating to produce high-energy…
Gamma-ray spectrometers with high spectral resolution have been operated in space since 2002. Major efforts to understand instrumental response and backgrounds are a requird before detailed science interpretations can be derived; by now,…
If dark matter (DM), which is considered to constitute most of the mass of galaxies, is made of supersymmetric (SUSY) particles, the centers of galaxies should emit gamma-rays produced by their self-annihilation. We present accurate…
The first detected gamma-ray line originating from outside the solar system is the 511 keV emission from the center of our Galaxy. The widely accepted explanation attributes this signal to electron-positron annihilation. However, despite…
The origin of the soft gamma-ray (200 keV - 1 MeV) galactic ridge emission is one of the long-standing mysteries in the field of high-energy astrophysics. Population studies at lower energies have shown that emission from accreting compact…
After almost 5 years of operation, ESA's International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) Space Observatory has unveiled a new soft Gamma ray sky and produced a remarkable harvest of results, ranging from identification of new…
Gamma-ray instrumentation for astronomical spectroscopy consists of multiple-interaction detectors in space combined with sophisticated post-processing of detector events on ground. Spectral signatures in the MeV regime originate from…
The search for gamma-ray line emission from the radioactive decay of 60Fe figures among the prime scientific objectives of the INTEGRAL mission. 60Fe is believed to be primarily produced in core-collapse supernovae, although other sites,…
Gamma-ray line emission from radioactive decay of 60Fe provides constraints on nucleosynthesis in massive stars and supernovae. The spectrometer SPI on board INTEGRAL has accumulated nearly three years of data on gamma-ray emission from the…
The intense 0.511 MeV gamma-ray line emission from the Galactic Center observed by INTEGRAL requires a large annihilation rate of nonrelativistic positrons. If these positrons are injected at even mildly relativistic energies, higher-energy…
This letter presents the first results of an observational campaign to study the Galactic Centre with INTEGRAL. The mosaicked images obtained with the IBIS/ISGRI coded aperture instrument in the energy ranges 20-40 and 40-100 keV, give a…