Classical novae with CUBES

• Published in: Experimental astronomy Vol. 55; no. 1; pp. 191 - 198
• Main Authors: Izzo, Luca, Molaro, Paolo, Bonifacio, Piercarlo, Cescutti, Gabriele, Della Valle, Massimo, Selvelli, Pierluigi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.02.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Astronomy; Beryllium; Beryllium 7; Chemistry and Earth Sciences; Computer Science; Cubes; Ejecta; European Southern Observatory; Galaxies; High energy astronomy; High resolution; Lithium isotopes; Novae; Nuclear fusion; Observations and Techniques; Original Article; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Satellites; Statistics for Engineering; Very Large Telescope; Abundances – stars: novae; Nucleosynthesis; Nuclear reactions
• ISSN: 0922-6435; 1572-9508
• DOI: 10.1007/s10686-022-09876-3

Among the main science cases that have motivated the proposal of CUBES, a new high-resolution spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory, there is the study and the characterisation of the nucleosynthesis of beryllium. Classical novae have been proposed since the ’70s as one of the main factories of lithium in the Galaxy, but this hypothesis has been demonstrated on empirical basis only recently thanks to the direct identification of lithium in V1369 Cen and through the observations of the resonance transition of 7 Be II, the 7 Li parent, at 313.0 nm in the near-UV range. CUBES is then the ideal instrument to quantify the amount of 7 Be and therefore of 7 Li produced by the different novae types hosted in the different components of the Milky Way and also in its nearby satellite galaxies. As important by-product of high resolution spectroscopic observations obtained with CUBES, there are the study of the properties of nova ejecta abundances, the shocks evolution in novae and their connection with the high-energy emission observed in these transients, from satellites as Fermi and Swift.