TESTING THE ORIGIN OF HIGH-ENERGY COSMIC RAYS

Recent accurate measurements of cosmic-ray (CR) protons and nuclei by ATIC-2, CREAM, and PAMELA reveal (1) unexpected spectral hardening in the spectra of CR species above a few hundred GeV per nucleon, (2) a harder spectrum of He compared to protons, and (3) softening of the CR spectra just below t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Astrophysical journal Vol. 752; no. 1; pp. 1 - 19
Main Authors Vladimirov, A E, Johannesson, G, Moskalenko, I V, Porter, T A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 10.06.2012
Subjects
ANISOTROPY
ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COSMIC NUCLEI
COSMIC PROTONS
Cosmic rays
DIFFUSION
Emission
ENERGY SPECTRA
Fluxes
GAMMA ASTRONOMY
GAMMA RADIATION
MILKY WAY
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
Nucleons
Origins
PHOTON EMISSION
Running
Spectra
Spectral emissivity
SPECTRAL HARDENING
TESTING
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI10.1088/0004-637X/752/1/68

Cover

More Information
Summary:Recent accurate measurements of cosmic-ray (CR) protons and nuclei by ATIC-2, CREAM, and PAMELA reveal (1) unexpected spectral hardening in the spectra of CR species above a few hundred GeV per nucleon, (2) a harder spectrum of He compared to protons, and (3) softening of the CR spectra just below the break energy. These newly discovered features may offer a clue to the origin of the observed high-energy Galactic CRs. We discuss possible interpretations of these spectral features and make predictions for the secondary CR fluxes and secondary-to-primary ratios, anisotropy of CRs, and diffuse Galactic gamma -ray emission in different phenomenological scenarios. Our predictions can be tested by currently running or near-future high-energy astrophysics experiments.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/752/1/68