Astrophysics with Radioactive Isotopes 2026, Traverse City, MI, USA

Session

Afternoon I

26 May 2026, 14:30

The Hagerty Center, Traverse City, Michigan, USA

50. The Future of Gamma-ray Instruments: COSI and the Remaining MeV Gap

Tiffany Lewis

26/05/2026, 14:30

Invited talk (30min + 10min Q&A)

The future of gamma-ray missions is currently under discussion. The FIGSAG Report highlights science cases that can only be addressed with future gamma-ray missions and primarily points toward the need for large payloads to achieve sensitivities exceeding Fermi by over an order of magnitude in both the MeV and GeV regimes in order to answer key questions about blazar jets and build a pulsar...

7. Toward all-sky gamma-ray line surveys with COSI

Aravind Valluvan (UC San Diego)

26/05/2026, 15:10

Contributed talk (15min + 5min Q&A)

Precise measurements of nuclear line emissions have revealed the nature of ongoing chemical enrichment in the Milky Way. Observations of $^{56}$Ni, $^{44}$Ti, and $^{26}$Al have provided unique insights into the dynamics of supernova explosions and the flow of material in the interstellar medium. With a scheduled launch in 2027, the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) will offer new...

15. Chemical evolution of Milky Way-like galaxies with zoomed-in cosmological simulations including long-term radioactive elements

Valeria Grisoni (INAF Trieste)

27/05/2026, 14:30

Invited talk (30min + 10min Q&A)

In this talk, I will discuss the chemical evolution of Milky Way-like galaxies with zoomed-in cosmological simulations including long-term radioactive elements. The simulated galaxies considered here are representative of MW-like galaxies according to a range of properties, that include morphology, masses, star formation rate, distribution of chemical abundances. Our simulations have already...

45. Chemical Separation of Presolar Grains from Meteorites

Liv Mumma (University of Chicago)

27/05/2026, 15:10

Contributed talk (15min + 5min Q&A)

Presolar grains are solid stardust particles with very little physical, chemical, or aqueous alteration, making them perfect for direct analysis of stellar processes in the stars that created the material for our solar system. Trace isotopes in presolar grains can tell us about the nucleosynthetic processes occurring in the stars that formed them. Searching for grains in situ can take...

38. Constraining 44Ti and 56Ni yields via a direct 13N(α,p)16O measurement

Thanassis Psaltis (Saint Mary's University)

28/05/2026, 14:30

Invited talk (30min + 10min Q&A)

The long-lived γ-ray isotopes observed in supernova remnants serve as direct signatures of the nucleosynthesis processes occurring deep within core-collapse supernovae. However, transforming these observations into a clear understanding of explosion dynamics requires precise nuclear physics input. A prime example is the 13-N(α,p)16-O reaction, which has been identified as a major nuclear...