No Arabic abstract
The acceleration of cosmic ray particles and their propagation in the Milky Way and the heliosphere tangle with each other, leading to complexity and degeneracy of the modeling of Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). The recent measurements of the GCR spectra by Voyager-1 from outside of the heliosphere gave a first direct observation of GCRs in the local interstellar (LIS) environment. Together with the high-precision data near the Earth taken by ACE and AMS-02, we derive the LIS spectra of Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, and Oxygen nuclei from a few MeV/n to TeV/n, using a non-parameterization method. These LIS spectra are helpful in further studying the injection and propagation parameters of GCRs. The nearly 20 years of data recorded by ACE are used to determine the solar modulation parameters over the solar cycles 23 and 24, based on the force-field approximation. We find general agreements of the modulation potential with the results inferred from neutron monitors and other cosmic ray data.
We study the propagation and injection models of cosmic rays using the latest measurements of the Boron-to-Carbon ratio and fluxes of protons, Helium, Carbon, and Oxygen nuclei by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the Advanced Composition Explorer at top of the Earth, and the Voyager spacecraft outside the heliosphere. The ACE data during the same time interval of the AMS-02 data are extracted to minimize the complexity of the solar modulation effect. We find that the cosmic ray nucleus data favor a modified version of the diffusion-reacceleration scenario of the propagation. The diffusion coefficient is, however, required to increase moderately with decreasing rigidity at low energies, which has interesting implications on the particle and plasma interaction in the Milky Way. We further find that the low rigidity ($<$ a few GV) injection spectra are different for different compositions. The injection spectra are softer for lighter nuclei. These results are expected to be helpful in understanding the acceleration process of cosmic rays.
We investigate the solar modulation effect with the long time cosmic ray proton and helium spectrum measured by AMS-02 on the time scale of a Bartels rotation (27 days) between May 2011 and May 2017. The time-span covers the negative heliospheric magnetic field polarity cycle, the polarity reversal period and the positive polarity cycle. The unprecedented accuracy of AMS-02 observation data provide a good opportunity to improve the understanding of the time dependent solar modulation effect. In this work, a two-dimensional solar modulation model is used to compute the propagation of cosmic rays in the heliosphere. Some important ingredients of the model which reflect the global heliospherical environment are taken from the observations. The propagation equation is numerically solved with the pubic Solarprop code. We find that the drift effect is suppressed during the high solar activity period but nearly recovered in the first half of 2017. The time-dependent rigidity dependence of the mean free path is critical to reproduce the observations between August 2012 and October 2015.
In this work, we considered 2 schemes (a high-rigidity break in primary source injections and a high-rigidity break in diffusion coefficient) to reproduce the newly released AMS-02 nuclei spectra (He, C, N, O, Li, Be, and B) when the rigidity larger than 50 GV. The fitting results show that current data set favors a high-rigidity break at $sim 325 mathrm{GV}$ in diffusion coefficient rather than a break at $sim 365 mathrm{GV}$ in primary source injections. Meanwhile, the fitted values of the factors to rescale the cosmic-ray (CR) flux of secondary species/components after propagation show us that the secondary flux are underestimated in current propagation model. It implies that we might locate in a slow diffusion zone, in which the CRs propagate with a small value of diffusion coefficient compared with the averaged value in the galaxy. Another hint from the fitting results show that extra secondary CR nuclei injection may be needed in current data set. All these new hints should be paid more attention in future research.
Low energy cosmic rays are modulated by the solar activity when they propagation in the heliosphere, leading to ambiguities in understanding their acceleration at sources and propagation in the Milky Way. By means of the precise measurements of the $e^-$, $e^+$, $e^-+e^+$, and $e^+/(e^-+e^+)$ spectra by AMS-02 near the Earth, as well as the very low energy measurements of the $e^-+e^+$ fluxes by Voyager-1 far away from the Sun, we derive the local interstellar spectra (LIS) of $e^-$ and $e^+$ components individually. Our method is based on a non-parametric description of the LIS of $e^-$ and $e^+$ and a force-field solar modulation model. We then obtain the evolution of the solar modulation parameters based on the derived LIS and the monthly fluxes of cosmic ray $e^-$ and $e^+$ measured by AMS-02. {bf To better fit the monthly data, additional renormalization factors for $e^-$ and $e^+$ have been multiplied to the modulated fluxes.} We find that the inferred solar modulation parameters of positrons are in good agreement with that of cosmic ray nuclei, and the time evolutions of the solar modulation parameters of electrons and positrons differ after the reversal of the heliosphere magnetic field polarity, which shows clearly the charge-sign dependent modulation effect.
Context: Features in the spectra of primary cosmic rays (CRs) provide invaluable information on the propagation of these particles in the Galaxy. In the rigidity region around a few hundred GV, such features have been measured in the proton and helium spectra by the PAMELA experiment and later confirmed with a higher significance by AMS-02. We investigate the implications of these datasets for the scenario in which CRs propagate under the action of self-generated waves. Aims: We show that the recent data on the spectrum of protons and helium nuclei as collected with AMS-02 and Voyager are in very good agreement with the predictions of a model in which the transport of Galactic CRs is regulated by self-generated waves. We also study the implications of the scenario for the boron-to-carbon ratio: although a good overall agreement is found, at high energy we find marginal support for a (quasi) energy independent contribution to the grammage, that we argue may come from the sources themselves Results: A break in the spectra of all nuclei is found at rigidity of a few hundred GV, as a result of a transition from self-generated waves to pre-existing waves with a Kolmogorov power spectrum. Neither the slope of the diffusion coefficient, nor its normalisation are free parameters. Moreover, at rigidities below a few GV, CRs are predicted to be advected with the self-generated waves at the local Alfven speed. This effect, predicted in our previous work, provides an excellent fit to the Voyager data on the proton and helium spectra at low energies, providing additional support to the model.