Related papers: Radioactive Decay
The quest to comprehend how nuclear processes influence astrophysical phenomena is driving experimental and theoretical research programs worldwide. One of the main goals in nuclear astrophysics is to understand how energy is generated in…
Classical novae are important producers of radioactive nuclei, such as be7, n13, f18, na22 and al26. The disintegration of these nuclei produces positrons (except for be7) that through annihilation with electrons produce photons of energies…
Studies based on the gamma-ray lines from radioactive decay of unstable isotopes produced in massive-star and supernova nucleosynthesis have been among INTEGRAL's prominent science achievements. 26Al has become a tool to study specific…
The phase-transition induced collapse of a neutron star to a more compact configuration (typically a ``strange'' star) and the subsequent core bounce is often invoked as a model for gamma-ray bursts. We present the results of numerical…
Nuclear reactions transform atomic nuclei inside stars. This is the process of stellar nucleosynthesis. The basic concepts of determining nuclear reaction rates inside stars are reviewed. How stars manage to burn their fuel so slowly most…
Nuclear gamma-ray lines constitute the most genuine diagnostic tool of nuclear astrophysics, since they allow for an unambiguous identification of isotopic species. Continuous improvement in instrumentation led to the discovery of several…
Radioactivity is understood to be described by a Poisson process, yet some measurements of nuclear decays appear to exhibit unexpected variations. Generally, the isotopes reporting these variations have long half lives, which are plagued by…
Many radioactive nuclei relevant for gamma-ray astrophysics are synthesized during explosive events, such as classical novae and supernovae. A review of recent results of explosive nucleosynthesis in these scenarios is presented, with a…
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…
X-ray binaries are composed of a normal star in orbit around a neutron star or stellar-mass black hole. Radio and X-ray observations have led to the presumption that some X-ray binaries called microquasars behave as scaled down active…
Astrophysical explosions result from the release of magnetic, gravitational, or thermonuclear energy on dynamical timescales, typically the sound-crossing time for the system. These explosions include solar and stellar flares, eruptive…
This chapter is intended to provide a general presentation of the atomic and nuclear processes responsible for X-ray line and gamma-ray line emission in various astrophysical environments. I consider line production from hot plasmas, from…
Reactions with radioactive nuclear beams at relativistic energies have opened new doors to clarify the mechanisms of stellar evolution and cataclysmic events involving stars and during the big bang epoch. Numerous nuclear reactions of…
(Abridged) We interpret gamma ray bursts as relativistic, electromagnetic explosions. Specifically, we propose that they are created when a rotating, relativistic, stellar-mass progenitor loses much of its rotational energy in the form of a…
Relativistic outflows with neutrons inevitably lead to inelastic collisions, and resulting subphotospheric gamma rays may explain prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts. In this model, hadronuclear, quasithermal neutrinos in the 10-100 GeV…
Cosmic rays of kinetic energies below ~1 GeV per nucleon are thought to play a key role in the chemistry and dynamics of the interstellar medium. They are also thought to be responsible for nucleosynthesis of the light elements Li, Be, and…
The observation of a radioactively powered kilonova AT~2017gfo associated with the gravitational wave-event GW170817 from binary neutron star merger proves that these events are ideal sites for the production of heavy $r$-process elements.…
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 hot and dense core formed in the collapse of a massive star is a powerful source of hypothetical feebly-interacting particles such as sterile neutrinos, dark photons, axion-like particles (ALPs), and others. Radiative decays such as…
Gamma-ray line observations provide a versatile tool for studies of nucleosynthesis processes and supernova physics. In particular, the observation of radioactive species in the interstellar medium probes recent nucleosynthesis activity on…