COMPTEL SEARCH FOR NA-22 LINE EMISSION FROM RECENT NOVAE

The COMPTEL telescope on board the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO ) is capable of imaging gamma-ray line sources in the MeV region at a sensitivity of about 10(-5) photons/(cm(2)s). During the period August 1991 to August 1993 of the observation program of CGRO, several recen t Galactic novae, some of which were later claimed to be neon-type nov ae, were in the COMPTEL field of view on a number of occasions. We sea rched for the Na-22 line at 1.275 MeV from the neon-type novae. No pos itive detection can be reported. Combining the upper Limits to the flu xes from these novae we are able to derive an average 2 sigma upper li mit for any neon-type novae in the Galactic disk of the order of 3 x 1 0(-5) cm(-2) s(-1) which translates into an upper limit of the ejected Na-22 mass of 3.7 x 10(-8) M.. This COMPTEL limit severely constrains modern theories of novae.