Related papers: Radioactive and kinematic tracers of feedback from…
Long-lived radioactive by-products of nucleosynthesis provide an opportunity to trace the flow of ejecta away from its sources for times beyond where ejecta can be seen otherwise. Gamma rays from such radioactive decay in interstellar space…
The observation of the interstellar 1.809 MeV decay-line of radioactive 26Al by the imaging gamma-ray telescope COMPTEL have let to the conclusion, that massive stars and their subsequent core-collapse supernovae are the dominant sources of…
We assemble a census of the most massive stars in Orion, then use stellar isochrones to estimate their masses and ages, and use these results to establish the stellar content of Orion's individual OB associations. From this, our new…
We developed a new population synthesis code for groups of massive stars, where we model the emission of different forms of energy and matter from the stars of the association. In particular, the ejection of the two radioactive isotopes…
Diffuse gamma-ray line emission traces freshly produced radioisotopes in the interstellar gas, providing a unique perspective on the entire Galactic cycle of matter from nucleosynthesis in massive stars to their ejection and mixing in the…
We study the populations of massive stars in the Carina region and their energetic feedback and ejection of $^{26}$Al. We did a census of the stellar populations in young stellar clusters within a few degrees of the Carina Nebula. For each…
The cosmic evolution of the chemical elements from the Big Bang to the present time is driven by nuclear fusion reactions inside stars and stellar explosions. A cycle of matter recurrently re-processes metal-enriched stellar ejecta into the…
Recent observations of the diffuse Galactic gamma-ray glow at 1.809 MeV, attributed to the radioactive decay of 26Al, point towards a massive star origin of this radioactive isotope. Wolf Rayet stars and core-collapse supernovae appear to…
Diffuse gamma-ray emission from the decay of radioactive $^{26}$Al is a messenger from the nucleosynthesis activity in our current-day galaxy. Because this material is attributed to ejections from massive stars and their supernovae, the…
Massive stars form in groups and their winds and supernova explosions create superbubbles up to kpc in size. Their ejecta are important for the dynamics of the interstellar medium and chemical evolution models. However, ejecta kinematics…
Massive stars are a major source of chemical elements in the cosmos, ejecting freshly produced nuclei through winds and core-collapse supernova explosions into the interstellar medium. Among the material ejected, long lived radioisotopes,…
OB associations and young open clusters constitute the most prolific nucleosynthesis sites in our Galaxy. The combined activity of stellar winds and core-collapse supernovae ejects significant amounts of freshly synthesised nuclei into the…
Recent improvements in stellar models for intermediate-mass and massive stars are recalled, together with their expectations for the synthesis of radioactive nuclei of lifetime $\tau \lesssim 25$ Myr, in order to re-examine the origins of…
Decades ago, $\gamma$-ray observatories identified diffuse Galactic emission at 1.809 MeV originating from $\beta^+$ decays of an isotope of aluminium, $^{26}$Al, that has a mean-life time of 1.04 Myr. Objects responsible for the production…
In the first few Myr the massive stars dynamically interact, produce runaways and affect the initial binary population. Observing and interpreting the dynamics of young massive clusters is key to our understanding of the star formation…
Radioactive nuclei were present in the early Solar System, as inferred from analysis of meteorites. Many are produced in massive stars, either during their lives or their final explosions. In the first paper in this series (Brinkman et al.…
We have developed a new diagnostic tool for the study of gamma-ray emission lines from radioactive isotopes (such as 26Al and 60Fe in conjunction with other multi-wavelength observables of Galactic clusters, associations, and alike objects.…
Many of the short-lived radioactive nuclei that were present in the early Solar System can be produced in massive stars. In the first paper in this series (Brinkman et al. 2019), we focused on the production of $^{26}$Al in massive…
Gamma-rays from radioactive 26Al (half life ~7.2 10^5 yr) provide a 'snapshot' view of ongoing nucleosynthesis in the Galaxy. The Galaxy is relatively transparent to such gamma-rays, and emission has been found concentrated along the plane…
The COMPTEL map of the 1.809 MeV gamma-ray line, which is attributed to the radioactive decay of 26Al, shows significant excess emission in the Cygnus region. Cygnus is a region of recent star formation activity, which is rich in massive,…