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Register a new userGalactic Cosmic Ray Origin Sites: Supernova Remnants and Superbubbles
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We discuss processes in galactic cosmic ray (GCR) acceleration sites - supernova remnants, compact associations of young massive stars, and superbubbles. Mechanisms of efficient conversion of the mechanical power of the outflows driven by supernova shocks and fast stellar winds of young stars into magnetic fields and relativistic particles are discussed. The high efficiency of particle acceleration in the sources implies the importance of nonlinear feedback effects in a symbiotic relationship where the magnetic turbulence required to accelerate the CRs is created by the accelerated CRs themselves. Non-thermal emission produced by relativistic particles (both those confined in and those that escape from the cosmic accelerators) can be used to constrain the basic physical models of the GCR sources. High resolution X-ray synchrotron imaging, combined with GeV-TeV gamma ray spectra, is a powerful tool to probe the maximum energies of accelerated particles. Future MeV regime spectroscopy will provide unique information on the composition of accelerated particles.
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We analyze the results of recent measurements of Galactic cosmic ray (GCRs) energy spectra and the spectra of nonthermal emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) in order to determine their consistency with GCR origin in SNRs. It is shown that the measured primary and secondary CR nuclei energy spectra as well as the observed positron-to-electron ratio are consistent with the origin of GCRs up to the energy 10^17 eV in SNRs. Existing SNR emission data provide evidences for efficient CR production in SNRs accompanied by significant magnetic field amplification. In some cases the nature of the detected gamma-ray emission is difficult to determine because key SNR parameters are not known or poorly constrained.
The spectrum of cosmic ray protons and electrons released by supernova remnants throughout their evolution is poorly known, because of the difficulty in accounting for particle escape and confinement in the downstream of a shock front, where both adiabatic and radiative losses are present. Here we calculate the spectrum of cosmic ray protons released during the evolution of supernovae of different types, accounting for the escape from upstream and for adiabatic losses of particles advected downstream of the shock and liberated at later times. The same calculation is carried out for electrons. The magnetic field in the post-shock region is calculated by using an analytic treatment of the magnetic field amplification due to non--resonant and resonant streaming instability and their saturation. We find that when the field is the result of the growth of the cosmic-ray--driven non--resonant instability alone, the spectrum of electrons and protons released by a supernova remnant are indeed different, but such a difference becomes appreciable only at energies $gtrsim 100-1000$ GeV, while observations of the electron spectrum require such a difference to be present at energies as low as $sim 10$ GeV. An effect at such low energies requires substantial magnetic field amplification in the late stages of the supernova remnant evolution (shock velocity $ll 1000$ km/s), perhaps not due to streaming instability but hydrodynamical processes. We comment on the feasibility of such conditions and speculate on the possibility that the difference in spectral shape between electrons and protons may reflect either some unknown acceleration effect, or additional energy losses in cocoons around the sources.
It is widely believe that galactic cosmic rays are originated in supernova remnants (SNRs) where they are accelerated by diffusive shock acceleration process at supernova blast waves driven by expanding SNRs. In recent theoretical developments of the diffusive shock acceleration theory in SNRs, protons are expected to accelerate in SNRs at least up to the knee energy. If SNRs are true generator of cosmic rays, they should accelerate not only protons but also heavier nuclei with right proportion and the maximum energy of heavier nuclei should be atomic mass (Z) times that of protons. In this work we investigate the implications of acceleration of heavier nuclei in SNRs on energetic gamma rays those are produced in hadronic interaction of cosmic rays with ambient matter. Our findings suggest that the energy conversion efficiency has to be nearly double for the mixed cosmic ray composition instead of pure protons to explain the observation and secondly the gamma ray flux above few tens of TeV would be significantly higher if cosmic rays particles can attain energies Z times of the knee energy in lieu of 200 TeV, as suggested earlier for non-amplified magnetic fields. The two stated maximum energy paradigm will be discriminated in future by the upcoming gamma ray experiments like Cherenkov Telescope array (CTA).
The origin of cosmic rays holds still many mysteries hundred years after they were first discovered. Supernova remnants have for long been the most likely sources of Galactic cosmic rays. I discuss here some recent evidence that suggests that supernova remnants can indeed efficiently accelerate cosmic rays. For this conference devoted to the Astronomical Institute Utrecht I put the emphasis on work that was done in my group, but placed in a broader context: efficient cosmic-ray acceleration and the im- plications for cosmic-ray escape, synchrotron radiation and the evidence for magnetic- field amplification, potential X-ray synchrotron emission from cosmic-ray precursors, and I conclude with the implications of cosmic-ray escape for a Type Ia remnant like Tycho and a core-collapse remnant like Cas A.
Supernova remnants are known to accelerate cosmic rays on account of their non-thermal emission of radio waves, X-rays, and gamma rays. Although there are many models for the acceleration of cosmic rays in Supernova remnants, the escape of cosmic rays from these sources is yet understudied. We use our time-dependent acceleration code RATPaC to study the acceleration of cosmic rays and their escape in post-adiabatic Supernova remnants and calculate the subsequent gamma-ray emission from inverse-Compton scattering and Pion decay. We performed spherically symmetric 1-D simulations in which we simultaneously solve the transport equations for CRs, magnetic turbulence, and the hydrodynamical flow of the thermal plasma in a volume large enough to keep all CRs in the simulation. The transport equations for cosmic-rays and magnetic turbulence are coupled via the cosmic-ray gradient and the spatial diffusion coefficient of the cosmic rays, while the cosmic-ray feedback onto the shock structure can be ignored. Our simulations span 100kyrs, thus covering the remnants evolution until the beginning of the post-adiabatic phase. At later stages of the evolution cosmic rays over a wide range of energy can reside outside of the remnant, creating spectra that are softer than predicted by standard DSA and feature breaks in the 10-100 GeV-range. The total spectrum of cosmic rays released into the interstellar medium has a spectral index of s~2.4 above roughly 10 GeV which is close to that required by Galactic propagation models. We further find the gamma-ray luminosity to peak around an age of 4,000 years for inverse-Compton-dominated high-energy emission. Remnants expanding in low-density media emit generally more inverse-Compton radiation matching the fact that the brightest known supernova remnants - RCW86, Vela Jr, HESSJ1731-347 and RXJ1713.7-3946 - are all expanding in low density environments.
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