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The radioisotope 26Al is a key observable for nucleosynthesis in the Galaxy and the environment of the early Solar System. To properly interpret the large variety of astronomical and meteoritic data, it is crucial to understand both the nuclear reactions involved in the production of 26Al in the relevant stellar sites and the physics of such sites. These range from the winds of low- and intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch stars; to massive and very massive stars, both their Wolf–Rayet winds and their final core-collapse supernovae (CCSN); and the ejecta from novae, the explosions that occur on the surface of a white dwarf accreting material from a stellar companion. Several reactions affect the production of 26Al in these astrophysical objects, including (but not limited to) 25Mg(p, γ)26Al, 26Al(p, γ)27Si, and 26Al(n, p/α). Extensive experimental effort has been spent during recent years to improve our understanding of such key reactions. Here we present a summary of the astrophysical motivation for the study of 26Al, a review of its production in the different stellar sites, and a timely evaluation of the currently available nuclear data. We also provide recommendations for the nuclear input into stellar models and suggest relevant, future experimental work.

The progenitors of many core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are expected to be in binary systems. By performing a series of three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations, we investigate how CCSN explosions affect their binary companion. We find that the amount of removed stellar mass, the resulting impact velocity, and the chemical contamination of the companion that results from the impact of the SN ejecta, strongly increases with decreasing binary separation and increasing explosion energy. Also, it is foud that the impact effects of CCSN ejecta on the structure of main-sequence (MS) companions, and thus their long term post-explosion evolution, is in general not be dramatic., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, poster contribution: IAU Symposium 346 "High Mass X-ray Binaries: illuminating the passage from massive binaries to merging compact objects", Vienna, Austria, 27-31 August 2018. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1509.03633

In the version of this Letter originally published, the caption of Fig. 2 incorrectly said J = 3–2; it should have said J = 2–1. This has now been corrected.

We present late-time Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ultraviolet (UV) and optical observations of the site of SN 2011dh in the galaxy M51, ~1164 days post-explosion. At the SN location, we observe a point source that is visible at all wavelengths, that is significantly fainter than the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the Yellow Supergiant progenitor observed prior to explosion. The previously reported photometry of the progenitor is, therefore, completely unaffected by any sources that may persist at the SN location after explosion. In comparison with the previously reported late-time photometric evolution of SN 2011dh, we find that the light curve has plateaued at all wavelengths. The SED of the late-time source is clearly inconsistent with a SED of stellar origin. Although the SED is bright at UV wavelengths, there is no strong evidence that the late-time luminosity originates solely from a stellar source corresponding to the binary companion, although a partial contribution to the observed UV flux from a companion star can not be ruled out., 7 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS accepted

The progenitors of many CCSNe are expected to be in binary systems. After the SN explosion, the companion may suffer from mass stripping and be shock heated as a result of the impact of the SN ejecta. If the binary system is disrupted, the companion is ejected as a runaway and hypervelocity star. By performing a series of 3D hydrodynamical simulations of the collision of SN ejecta with the companion star, we investigate how CCSN explosions affect their companions. We use the BEC code to construct the detailed companion structure at the time of SN explosion. The impact of the SN blast wave on the companion is followed by means of 3D SPH simulations using the Stellar GADGET code. For main-sequence (MS) companions, we find that the amount of removed mass, impact velocity, and chemical contamination of the companion that results from the impact of the SN ejecta, strongly increases with decreasing binary separation and increasing explosion energy. Their relationship can be approximately fitted by power laws, which is consistent with the results obtained from impact simulations of SNe~Ia. However, we find that the impact velocity is sensitive to the momentum profile of the outer SN ejecta and, in fact, may decrease with increasing ejecta mass, depending on the modeling of the ejecta. Because most companions to Ib/c CCSNe are in their MS phase at the moment of the explosion, combined with the strongly decaying impact effects with increasing binary separation, we argue that the majority of these SNe lead to inefficient mass stripping and shock heating of the companion star following the impact of the ejecta. Our simulations show that the impact effects of Ib/c SN ejecta on the structure of MS companions, and thus their long-term post-explosion evolution, is in general not dramatic. We find that at most 10% of their mass is lost, and their resulting impact velocities are less than 100 km/s., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, some minor typographical errors are fixed, the affiliation of second author is corrected