Related papers: Supernovae and Positron Annihilation
Positron annihilation radiation from the Galaxy has been observed by the OSSE, SMM and TGRS instruments. Improved spectral modeling of OSSE observations has allowed studies of the distribution of both positron annihilation radiation…
We consider positron propagation in the interstellar medium and show that the positrons from the beta-plus decay chains of the radioactive nuclei Ni-56, Ti-44, and Al-26, produced in Galactic supernovae, can fully account for all the…
Observations of annihilation radiation in the Galaxy are briefly reviewed. We summarize astrophysical mechanisms leading to positron production, and recent estimates for production rates from nova and supernova nucleosynthesis in the…
By combining OSSE, SMM and TGRS observations of the galactic center region, Purcell et al. (1997) and Cheng et al. (1997) produced the first maps of galactic positron annihilation. That data-set has been augmented with additional data, both…
Maps of the Galactic electron-positron annihilation radiation show evidence for three distinct and significant features: (1) a central bulge source, (2) emission in the Galactic plane, and (3) an enhancement of emission at positive…
The SPI instrument on-board the ESA/INTEGRAL satellite is engaged in a mission-long study of positron annihilation radiation from the Galaxy. Early results suggest that the disk component is only weakly detected at 511 keV by SPI. We review…
Clusters of galaxies are enriched with positrons from jets of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or from the interaction of cosmic rays with the intracluster gas. We follow the cooling of these positrons and show that their eventual annihilation…
Our Galaxy hosts the annihilation of a few $\times 10^{43}$ low-energy positrons every second. Radioactive isotopes capable of supplying such positrons are synthesised in stars, stellar remnants, and supernovae. For decades, however, there…
We consider the production of positrons in microquasars, i.e. X-ray binary systems that exhibit jets frequently, but not continuously. We estimate the production rate of positrons in microquasars, both by simple energy considerations and in…
The energy deposition into the ejecta of type Ia supernovae is dominated at late times by the slowing of positrons produced in the $\beta^{+}$ decays of $^{56}$Co. Fits of model-generated light curves to observations of type Ia supernovae…
The electron-positron annihilation source in the Galactic center region has recently been observed with INTEGRAL/SPI, which shows that this 511 keV source is strong and its extension is consistent with the Galactic bulge geometry. The…
The Galaxy hosts a widespread population of low-energy positrons revealed by successive generations of gamma-ray telescopes through a bright annihilation emission from the bulge region, with a fainter contribution from the inner disk. The…
The Milky Way Galaxy glows with the soft gamma ray emission resulting from the annihilation of $\sim 5 \times 10^{43}$ electron-positron pairs every second. The origin of this vast quantity of antimatter and the peculiar morphology of the…
Recently, the gamma-ray telescopes AGILE and Fermi observed several middle-aged supernova remnants (SNRs) interacting with molecular clouds. A plausible emission mechanism of the gamma rays is the decay of neutral pions produced by cosmic…
Historical Type Ia supernovae are a leading candidate for the source of positrons observed through their diffuse annihilation emission in the Galaxy. However, search for annihilation emission from individual Type Ia supernovae has not been…
We model the annihilation of relic positrons produced in a gamma-ray burst (GRB) after its afterglow has faded. We find that the annihilation signal from at least one GRB remnant in the Milky Way galaxy should be observable with future…
The status of the analysis of the electron/positron annihilation radiation performed by INTEGRAL/SPI in the 4th GALACTIC QUADRANT is reported. We use data from the first two Galactic Center Deep Exposures (GCDE) and from the Galactic Plane…
Positron and electron cosmic rays provide a complementary way to study the galactic environment. The actual cosmic rays experiments, for instance PAMELA and HEAT, have presented very exciting results in this field. The observed positron…
Knowledge of the formation of neutron stars (NSs) in supernova (SN) explosions is of fundamental importance in wide areas of contemporary astrophysics: X-ray binaries, magnetars, radio pulsars, and, not least, double NS systems which merge…
The origin of the diffuse gamma-ray background in the range from hundreds keV to several MeV is not known conclusively. From current models and observations it is believed that, at least partially, this background is formed by blazars and…