Live Radioactivities as Signatures of Nearby Supernovae

John Ellis, BDF, Peter McCullough, Vasiliki Pavlidou

and ASTR290 Supernova Veterans:

Chris Weigand '01, Paul Tumaneng '02, Angela Zalucha '04

Journal Club, Feb. 12, 2004

The Paper: New Astronomy Reviews 48, 119 (2004)

The Meeting: Astronomy with Radioactivities IV: May 26-30, 2003

Overview: the Nearby Supernova Rate

Geological Signatures

• Signatures: direct deposit, cosmogenic
• Observables
• Case study: Supernova evidence at the bottom of the sea:
  Munich AMS experiment
• The Smoking Gun: Possible identification of supernova site in the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association

Gamma-Ray Line Signatures

• Gamma-ray emission from beta decay
• astrophysical example: ²⁶Al
  • decay scheme
  • COMPTEL 1.8 MeV gamma-ray sky: the Galaxy contains freshly synthesized ²⁶Al!
    late-breaking results from INTEGRAL
• Case study:
• possible supernova remnant detection in Antlia
• Case study: Vela Junior