Distributed Radioactivities

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Astrophysics with Radioactive Isotopes

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 453))

Abstract

Radioactive nuclei freshly produced in compact sources of cosmic nucleosynthesis are ejected into the source surroundings. Then, their decay may be directly observable through characteristic gamma-ray lines, or they may be transported directly to a terrestrial detector. Also, condensation into dust and solids may occur, and then freeze the composition of gas at the dust formation site, which can be inferred from such stardust as found in meteorites. The intrinsic clocks provided by the radioactive decay of each isotope then provide a tool to investigate the characteristics of transport away from the sources, and through interstellar medium, and in the solidification and planet formation phase of our solar system around its earliest history. In this Chapter we discuss what radioactive isotopes such as26Al, 60Fe, 129I, 59Ni, but also very heavy element isotopes such as 244Pu, or positrons from β + decay can teach us about sources and transport of radioactive nuclei.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Exposure time is million years, while the Galaxy’s age is 10–13 Gyrs.

  2. 2.

    Instrumental background from 60Co produced locally in the satellite by cosmic rays may be a remaining concern.Wang et al. (2007) have accounted for such contribution within instrumental knowledge. Note that insufficient subtraction of instrumental contributions would make the Galactic 60Fe contribution even smaller.

  3. 3.

    The mass range commonly assumed is 8–120 M; but both mass limits are subject to some uncertainty (see discussion in Zinnecker and Yorke 2007). Limongi and Chieffi (2006b) discuss in detail the impact of varying the slope of the mass distribution function, and the upper mass limit for the integrated range of masses.

  4. 4.

    A period of irritation occurred between 2002 and 2005, as nuclear cross sections and models were updated, and seemed to predict much higher ratios up to 1; see discussion in Woosley and Heger (2007) and Prantzos (2004).

  5. 5.

    That is, by proof from observations: 26Al gamma rays are observed, and 26Al decay is known to emit positrons.

  6. 6.

    We do no include in this list of constraints the intriguing disk asymmetry reported byWeidenspointner et al. (2008), since it has not been subsequently confirmed, e.g. Bouchet et al. (2008).

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Correspondence to Roland Diehl .

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Diehl, R., Hartmann, D.H., Prantzos, N. (2018). Distributed Radioactivities. In: Diehl, R., Hartmann, D., Prantzos, N. (eds) Astrophysics with Radioactive Isotopes. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 453. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91929-4_7

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