Astrophysics with Radioactive Isotopes

"The entire volume should surely ... find a place on a reading list for a graduate course on nucleosynthesis and related matters. Moreover, the volume under review deserves to be read by young and old astrophysicists." (David L. Lambert, The Observatory, Vol. 139 (1273), December, 2019)

Roland Diehl is research scientist at the Max Planck Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik (MPE). He holds a doctoral degree in physics from the Technische Universitat Munchen (1988) and is Professor (apl.) in the Physics Department at the Technische Universitat Munchen. He started his career from nuclear physics, joining the staff of the gamma-ray astronomy group at MPE in 1979. Experimental nuclear physics determined his early work. This evolved into taking part in development of pioneering telescopes for the MeV regime of astronomy at MPE, specifically the COMPTEL telescope, which was operated 1991-2000 in space aboard NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, and the SPI imaging spectrometer aboard ESA's INTEGRAL satellite observatory launched in 2002 and operating successfully since. After leading the calibrations of the COMPTEL telescope, he has been guiding different teams to advance analysis methods required for these complex measurements with gamma-ray telescopes, which involved telescope projects COMPTEL, INTEGRAL/SPI, GRIPS, and eAstrogam. He is Co-Principal Investigator of the INTEGRAL SPI telescope, and head of MPE's science team on cosmic gamma-ray spectroscopy. He has been member of several international and national science advisory boards, and of the Senate of the Max-Planck Society. His astrophysical interest is centered on nuclear astrophysics, interpreting gamma-ray line measurements in their context of nucleosynthesis in stars and supernovae, and related cosmic ray physics. He pioneered the imaging of the sky in the radioactive-decay gamma-ray line from 26Al, and is currently involved in studies of supernovae, massive stars, novae, and how these energise and shape the interstellar medium, employing a broad range of astronomical measurements. Dieter H. Hartmann is a Professor of Astrophysics on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University, South Carolina, USA. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California Santa Cruz (1989). He had studied Physics Engineering in Lubeck / Germany, then found his interest in astrophysics at the Gauss Observatory in Goettingen, where he obtained his Diploma (1982) on the nuclear equation of state of supernova matter. Studies of nucleosynthesis in neutron-rich environments to explain isotopic anomalies in meteorites, and -ray properties of core-collapse supernovae continued this early work. Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and their afterglows were subject of his Ph.D. time under the mentorship of Prof. S. E. Woosley, whereafter a postdoctoral research position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory focused on galactic dynamics and GRB counterparts. Since 1991 he pursued nuclear and -ray astrophysics in the group of Prof. Donald D. Clayton at Clemson University. He worked as member of the LOTIS Team (GRB counterparts), and then in the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) Team for many years, including many summer visits working with the gamma-ray group at the MPE. He has been member of the User Groups of NASA's Swift- and Fermi-missions, as well as ESA's INTEGRAL User Group, and also serves as a Scientific Editor of The Astrophysical Journal, and in committees such as the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee and NASA's roadmap study "Enduring Quests - Daring Visions". His current research includes the general area of Time Domain Astrophysics, with a focus on explosive phenomena (novae, supernovae, GRBs) and their use as cosmic probes for galactic and cosmic chemical evolution. Nikos Prantzos is Director of research in the Paris Institute of Astrophysics. He holds a PhD in nuclear astrophysics from Paris VII University (1986). His main scientific interests are on stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis, with an emphasis on galactic chemical evolution and high energy astrophysics, in particular gamma-ray line astronomy and the composition of galactic cosmic rays. He coordinated various international teams doing theoretical w

Part I The Role of Radioactivities in Astrophysics.- Introduction to Astronomy With Radioactivity.- The Role of Radioactive Isotopes in Astrophysics.- Part II Specific Sources of Cosmic Isotopes.- Radioactivities in Low-and Intermediate-Mass Stars.- Massive Stars and their Supernovae.- Binary Systems and Their Nuclear Explosions.- Part III Special Places to Observe Cosmic Isotopes.- Distributed Radioactivities.- Part IV Tools for the Study of Radioactivities in Astrophysics.- Nuclear Reactions.- Instruments for Observations of Radioactivities.- Part V Epilogue.- Perspectives.- Annotations on Chemical Evolution.- Radionuclides and Their Stellar Origins.- Milestones in the Science of Cosmic Radioactivities.- Glossary: Key Terms in Astronomy With Radioactivities.- Index.