Related papers: Cosmic radioactivities
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…
Variations in the flux of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) at Earth during the last 4.6 billion years are constructed from information about the Star Formation Rate (SFR) in the Milky Way and the evolution of solar activity. The variations of GCR…
In the past few years, gamma-ray astronomy has entered a golden age thanks to two major breakthroughs: Cherenkov telescopes on the ground and the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi satellite. The sample of supernova remnants…
Cosmic background radiation, both diffuse and discrete in nature, produced at different cosmic epochs before and after recombination, provides key information on the evolution of cosmic structures. We discuss the main classes of sources…
Imaging the Universe during the first hundreds of millions of years remains one of the exciting challenges facing modern cosmology. Observations of the redshifted 21 cm line of atomic hydrogen offer the potential of opening a new window…
Exploration of the transient Universe is an exciting and fast-emerging area within radio astronomy. Known transient phenomena range in time scales from sub-nanoseconds to years or longer, thus spanning a huge range in time domain and…
This paper shows that ultrastrong magnetic fields (such as those of magnetars) and dense astrophysical plasmas can reduce the half life of alpha decaying nuclei by many orders of magnitude. In such environments the conventional…
Astrophysics is gaining increased attention from the particle and nuclear physics communities, as budget cuts, delays, and cancellations limit opportunities for breakthrough research at accelerator laboratories. Observations of cosmic rays…
The chemical elements are created in nuclear fusion processes in the hot and dense cores of stars. The energy generated through nucleosynthesis allows stars to shine for billions of years. When these stars explode as massive supernovae, the…
The characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres through transit spectra is becoming increasingly feasible, and technology for direct detection remains ongoing. The possibility of detecting spectral features could enable quantitative…
The last two decades have brought spectacular advances in astrophysics of cosmic rays (CRs) and space- and ground-based astronomy. Launches of missions that employ forefront detector technologies enabled measurements with large effective…
Many of the basic problems in the astrophysics of charged Cosmic Rays remain on principle unresolved by in situ observations in the Solar System due to the chaotic nature of the propagation of these particles in Interstellar space. This…
Dark matter particles need not be completely stable, and in fact they may be decaying now. We consider this possibility in the frameworks of universal extra dimensions and supersymmetry with very late decays of WIMPs to Kaluza-Klein…
Knowledge of the decay rates (or half-lives) of radioisotopes is critical in many fields, including medicine, archeology, and nuclear physics, to name just a few. Central to the many uses of radioisotopes is the belief that decay rates are…
To anyone who has read a scientific journal or even a newspaper in the last six months, it might appear that cosmic gamma-ray bursts hold no more mysteries: they are cosmological, and possibly the most powerful explosions in the Universe.…
The history of life on Earth and in other potential life-bearing planetary platforms is deeply linked to the history of the universe. Since life as we know it relies on chemical elements forged in dying heavy stars, the universe needs to be…
This paper deals with the cosmic-ray penetration into molecular clouds and with the related gamma--ray emission. High energy cosmic rays interact with the dense gas and produce neutral pions which in turn decay into two gamma rays. This…
Variability is a common characteristic of magnetically active stars. Flaring variability is usually interpreted as the observable consequence of transient magnetic reconnection processes happening in the stellar outer atmosphere. Stellar…
Cosmic explosions dissipate energy into their surroundings on a very wide range of time-scales: producing shock waves and associated particle acceleration. The historical culprits for the acceleration of the bulk of Galactic cosmic rays are…
We study the possibility that dark radiation, sourced through the decay of dark matter in the late Universe, carries electromagnetic interactions. The relativistic flux of particles induces recoil signals in direct detection and neutrino…