New estimates of the gamma-ray line emission of the Cygnus region from INTEGRAL/SPI observations

TL;DR

This study uses INTEGRAL/SPI observations to measure gamma-ray emissions from radioactive isotopes in the Cygnus region, providing constraints on nucleosynthesis models and the distribution of radioactive material.

Contribution

First observational constraints on 26Al and 60Fe gamma-ray emissions from Cygnus, separating complex emission from Galactic background, and characterizing source morphology and flux.

Findings

Detected 26Al emission centered on Cyg OB2 with flux (3.9 +/- 1.1) x10^-5 ph/cm^2/s.

No significant 60Fe emission detected; upper limit set at 1.6 x10^-5 ph/cm^2/s.

Emission characteristics consistent with interstellar medium motions and model expectations.

Abstract

The Cygnus region harbours a huge complex of massive stars at a distance of 1.0-2.0kpc from us. About 170 O stars are distributed over several OB associations, among which the Cyg OB2 cluster is by far the largest with about 100-120 O stars. As a consequence of their successive nuclear-burning episodes, these massive stars inject large quantities of radioactive nuclei into the interstellar medium such as 26Al and 60Fe. The gamma-ray line signal from the latter is a solid tracer of ongoing nucleosynthesis. We want to compare the decay emission from the Cygnus region with predictions of recently improved stellar models. As a first step, we establish observational constraints upon the gamma-ray line emission from 26Al and 60Fe, with particular emphasis placed on separating the emission due to the Cygnus complex from the foreground and background mean Galactic contributions. We used the high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer INTEGRAL/SPI to analyse the 26Al and 60Fe decay signal from the Cygnus region. The weak gamma-ray line emissions at 1809 and 1173/1332keV have been characterised in terms of photometry, spectrometry, and source morphology. The 1809keV emission from Cygnus is centred on the position of the Cyg OB2 cluster and has a typical size of 9 degrees or more. The total 1809keV flux from the Cygnus region is (6.0 +/- 1.0) x10e-5 ph/cm2/s, but the flux really attributable to the Cygnus complex reduces to (3.9 +/- 1.1) x10e-5 ph/cm2/s. The 1809keV line centroid is agrees with expectations considering the direction and distance of the Cygnus complex, and the line width is consistent with typical motions of the interstellar medium. No decay emission from 60Fe has been observed from the Cygnus region and an upper limit of 1.6 x10e-5 ph/cm2/s was derived.