Related papers: Gamma-Ray Line Emission from 7-Li and 7-Be Product…
Recent observations of high ionization rates of molecular hydrogen in diffuse interstellar clouds point to a distinct low-energy cosmic-ray component. Supposing that this component is made of nuclei, two models for the origin of such…
Gamma ray lines are expected to be emitted as part of the afterglow of supernova explosions, because radioactive decay of freshly synthesised nuclei occurs. Significant radioactive gamma ray line emission is expected from 56Ni and 44Ti…
As pointed out by Lingenfelter and Ramaty (1977), the shapes of some gamma-ray lines produced by cosmic-ray interactions with the interstellar medium potentially contain valuable information on the physical properties of dust grains,…
Secondary nuclear production physics is receiving increased attention given the high-quality measurements of the gamma-ray emissivity of local interstellar gas between ~50 MeV and ~40 GeV, obtained with the Large Area Telescope on board the…
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 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. We detect the gamma-ray lines from 60Fe decay at 1173 and 1333 keV using three years of data from the…
More than 90% of the Galactic gas-related gamma-ray emissivity above 1 GeV is attributed to the decay of neutral pions formed in collisions between cosmic rays and interstellar matter, with lepton-induced processes becoming increasingly…
After decades of uncertainty about the origin of lithium, recent evidence suggests Galactic novae as its main astrophysical source. In this work, we present possible evidence for the first detection of the $^7$Be line at 478 keV, observed…
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…
The majority of galactic gamma rays are produced by interaction of cosmic rays with matter or radiation fields. This results in a diffuse radiation concentrated in the galactic plane where the flux of cosmic rays and the density of material…
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…
Cosmic-ray interactions with interstellar gas produces both 6Li, which accumulates in the interstellar medium (ISM), and $\pi^0$ mesons, which decay to gamma-rays which propagate throughout the cosmos. Local 6Li abundances and extragalactic…
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,…
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…
Aims. The accretion of stars onto the central supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is predicted to generate large fluxes of subrelativistic ions in the Galactic center region. We analyze the intensity, shape and spatial…
Gamma-ray line studies are capable of identifying radioactive tracer isotopes generated in cosmic nucleosynthesis events. Pioneering measurements were made 30 years ago with HEAO-C1, detecting the first interstellar gamma-ray line from…
Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission is produced by the interaction of high-energy cosmic rays propagating through the Milky Way with interstellar gas and radiation fields. Its measurement can provide crucial insights into the acceleration…
The bulk of the diffuse galactic gamma-ray emission above a few tens of GeV has been conventionally ascribed to the decay of neutral pions produced in cosmic-ray interactions with interstellar matter. Cosmic-ray electrons may, however, make…
The diffuse Galactic $\gamma$-ray emission, mainly produced via interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar medium and/or radiation field, is a very important probe of the distribution, propagation, and interaction of cosmic rays…