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Register a new userGamma-Ray Emission from Molecular Clouds Generated by Penetrating Cosmic Rays
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We analyze the processes governing cosmic-ray (CR) penetration into molecular clouds and the resulting generation of gamma-ray emission. The density of CRs inside a cloud is depleted at lower energies due to the self-excited MHD turbulence. The depletion depends on the effective gas column density (size) of the cloud. We consider two different environments where the depletion effect is expected to be observed. For the Central Molecular Zone, the expected range of CR energy depletion is $Elesssim 10$ GeV, leading to the depletion of gamma-ray flux below $E_gammaapprox 2$ GeV. This effect can be important for the interpretation of the GeV gamma-ray excess in the Galactic Center, which has been revealed from the standard model of CR propagation (assuming the CR spectrum inside a cloud to be equal to the interstellar spectrum). Furthermore, recent observations of some local molecular clouds suggest the depletion of the gamma-ray emission, indicating possible self-modulation of the penetrating low-energy CRs.
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It was recently discovered that in some regions of the Galaxy, the cosmic ray (CR) abundance is several orders of magnitude higher than previously thought. Additionally, there is evidence that in molecular cloud envelopes, the CR ionization may be dominated by electrons. We show that for regions with high, electron-dominated ionization, the penetration of CR electrons into molecular clouds is modulated by the electric field that develops as a result of the charge they deposit. We evaluate the significance of this novel mechanism of self-modulation and show that the CR penetration can be reduced by a factor of a few to a few hundred in high-ionization environments, such as those found near the Galactic center.
The study of high-energy gamma rays from passive Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in our Galaxy is an indirect way to characterize and probe the paradigm of the sea of cosmic rays in distant parts of the Galaxy. By using data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, we measure the gamma-ray flux above 1 TeV of a set of these clouds to test the paradigm. We selected high-galactic latitude clouds that are in HAWCs field-of-view and which are within 1~kpc distance from the Sun. We find no significant excess emission in the cloud regions, nor when we perform a stacked log-likelihood analysis of GMCs. Using a Bayesian approach, we calculate 95% credible intervals upper limits of the gamma-ray flux and estimate limits on the cosmic-ray energy density of these regions. These are the first limits to constrain gamma-ray emission in the multi-TeV energy range ($>$1 TeV) using passive high-galactic latitude GMCs. Assuming that the main gamma-ray production mechanism is due to proton-proton interaction, the upper limits are consistent with a cosmic-ray flux and energy density similar to that measured at Earth.
The propagation of particles accelerated at supernova remnant shocks and escaping the parent remnants is likely to proceed in a strongly non-linear regime, due to the efficient self-generation of Alfven waves excited through streaming instability near the sources. Depending on the amount of neutral hydrogen present in the regions around the sites of supernova explosions, cosmic rays may accumulate an appreciable grammage in the same regions and get self-confined for non-negligible times, which in turn results in an enhanced rate of production of secondaries. Here we calculate the contribution to the diffuse gamma-ray background due to the overlap along lines of sight of several of these extended halos as due to pion production induced by self-confined cosmic rays. We find that if the density of neutrals is low, the halos can account for a substantial fraction of the diffuse emission observed by Fermi-LAT, depending on the orientation of the line of sight with respect to the direction of the Galactic centre.
Cosmic Ray (CR) interactions with the dense gas inside Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) produce neutral pions, which in turn decay into gamma rays. Thus, the gamma ray emission from GMCs is a direct tracer of the cosmic ray density and the matter density inside the clouds. Detection of enhanced TeV emission from GMCs, i.e., an emission significantly larger than what is expected from the average Galactic cosmic rays illuminating the cloud, can imply a variation in the local cosmic ray density, due to, for example, the presence of a recent accelerator in proximity to the cloud. Such gamma-ray observations can be crucial in probing the cosmic ray distribution across our Galaxy, but are complicated to perform with present generation Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). These studies require differentiating between the strong cosmic-ray induced background, the large scale diffuse emission, and the emission from the clouds, which is difficult to the small field of view of present generation IACTs. In this contribution, we use H.E.S.S. data collected over 16 years to search for TeV emission from GMCs in the inner molecular galacto-centric ring of our Galaxy. We implement a 3D FoV likelihood technique, and simultaneously model the hadronic background, the galactic diffuse emission and the emission expected from known VHE sources to probe for excess TeV gamma ray emission from GMCs.
The galactic cosmic rays are generally believed to be originated in supernova remnants (SNRs), produced in diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) process in supernova blast waves driven by expanding SNRs. One of the key unsettled issue in SNR origin of cosmic ray model is the maximum attainable energy by a cosmic ray particle in the supernova shock. Recently it has been suggested that an amplification of effective magnetic field strength at the shock may take place in young SNRs due to growth of magnetic waves induced by accelerated cosmic rays and as a result the maximum energy achieved by cosmic rays in SNR may reach the knee energy instead of $sim 200$ TeV as predicted earlier under normal magnetic field situation. In the present work we investigate the implication of such maximum energy scenarios on TeV gamma rays and neutrino fluxes from the molecular clouds interacting with the SNR W28. The authors compute the gamma-ray and neutrino flux assuming two different values for the maximum energy reached by cosmic rays in the SNR, from CR interaction in nearby molecular clouds. Both protons and nuclei are considered as accelerated particles and as target material. Our findings suggest that the issue of the maximum energy of cosmic rays in SNRs can be observationally settled by the upcoming gamma-ray experiment the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). The estimated neutrino fluxes from the molecular clouds are , however, out of reach of the present/near future generation of neutrino telescopes.
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