The Mass cut - The relation between 44Ti and 56Ni in supenovae remnants

[PaulWright]

Would it be possible if you would help me with a quick question, (as none of the staff here, or postgraduates can answer this question)?

My group are designing a gamma ray telescope to look at nucleosynthesis in Supernovae. We have found a thing called the 'mass cut' (the separation between ejected material and the neutron-star remnant of a core-collapse supernova) which is defined as the ratio between 44Ti/56Ni.

I am basically wondering why you use such elements. It is known that 44Ti can be used to map the ejecta (as it will be far from the neutron star in the middle) from supenovae, but why would you use 56Ni?

Regards,

Paul

 

[Chronos]

The paper "Proton-Rich Nuclear Statistical Equilibrium", http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.2033 may yield some insight.