Positrons from Supernovae

Positrons are produced in the ejecta of supernovae by the decay of nucleosynthetic Co-56, Ti-44, and Al-26. We calculate the probability that these positrons can survive without annihilating in the supernova ejecta, and we show that enough of these positrons should escape into the interstellar medium to account for the observed diffuse Galactic annihilation radiation. The surviving positrons are carried by the expanding ejecta into the interstellar medium where their annihilation lifetime of 10 exp 5 - 10 exp 6 yr is much longer than the average supernovae occurrence time of about 100 yr. Thus, annihilating positrons from thousands of supernovae throughout the Galaxy produce a steady diffuse flux of annihilation radiation. We further show that combining the calculated positron survival fractions and nucleosynthetic yields for current supernova models with the estimated supernova rates and the observed flux of diffuse Galactic annihilation radiation suggests that the present Galactic rate of Fe-56 nucleosynthesis is about 0.8 +/- 0.6 solar mass per 100 yr.