Elemental abundance enhancement in cosmic rays and their relation to interstellar depletion

We have shown that a correlation exists between the enhancement of abundance of heavy nuclei in cosmic rays and their depletion in interstellar space. A correlation also exists between the abundance enhancement and condensation temperature. We suggest that these correlations imply that much of the heavy nuclei content of cosmic rays may come from grains. A possible model is that grains in star-cloud complexes are accelerated to injection energies by radiation pressure in a supernova explosion and, subsequently, the grain debris is accelerated by shocks to cosmic ray energies.     

Formation of higher harmonics of the galactic cosmic-ray distribution function

We derive equations for the multipole moments of the distribution function of Galactic cosmic rays with energies 1–20 TeV that experience random scattering by turbulence with a power-law spectrum. We take into account the irregularity of the local interstellar medium (LISM) in the neighborhood of the solar system due to the presence of interstellar clouds, the interstellar wind flow around the heliomagnetosphere, and preceding supernova explosions in the local superbubble. The amplitudes of the second and third harmonics of the cosmic-ray distribution function are expressed in terms of the amplitude of the first harmonic without assuming them to be small compared to the first harmonic. Reconciling their values in magnitude and phase with the observed values requires a significant LISM irregularity, which is consistent with other observational data on the LISM structure. Our model is consistent with the assumption that supernova remnants in the Galactic disk located at distances from the Solar system much larger than the particle transport mean free path are the sources of the particles under consideration.     

Gamma rays from molecular clouds

It is believed that the observed diffuse gamma-ray emission from the galactic plane is the result of interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar gas. Such emission can be amplified if cosmic rays penetrate into dense molecular clouds. The propagation of cosmic rays inside a molecular cloud has been studied assuming an arbitrary energy and space dependent diffusion coefficient. If the diffusion coefficient inside the cloud is significantly smaller compared to the average one derived for the galactic disk, the observed gamma-ray spectrum appears harder than the cosmic ray spectrum, mainly due to the slower penetration of the low energy particles towards the core of the cloud. This may produce a great variety of gamma-ray spectra.     

Broad-band non-thermal emission from molecular clouds illuminated by cosmic rays from nearby supernova remnants

Molecular clouds are expected to emit non-thermal radiation due to cosmic ray interactions in the dense magnetized gas. Such emission is amplified if a cloud is located close to an accelerator of cosmic rays and if energetic particles can leave the accelerator site and diffusively reach the cloud. We consider here a situation in which a molecular cloud is located in the proximity of a supernova remnant which is efficiently accelerating cosmic rays and gradually releasing them in the interstellar medium. We calculate the multiwavelength spectrum from radio to gamma rays which is emerging from the cloud as the result of cosmic ray interactions. The total energy output is dominated by the gamma-ray emission, which can exceed the emission in other bands by an order of magnitude or more. This suggests that some of the unidentified TeV sources detected so far, with no obvious or very weak counterparts in other wavelengths, might be in fact associated with clouds illuminated by cosmic rays coming from a nearby source. Moreover, under certain conditions, the gamma-ray spectrum exhibits a concave shape, being steep at low energies and hard at high energies. This fact might have important implications for the studies of the spectral compatibility of GeV and TeV gamma-ray sources.     

Energy spectra of the main groups of galactic cosmic rays in the model of three classes of sources

We suggest a model to consistently describe the available experimental data on the elemental cosmic-ray energy spectra obtained in direct measurements and to make a smooth transition to the spectrum of all particles measured with extensive air showers. The model suggests the existence of three classes of cosmic-ray sources—shocks from supernova explosions that produce power-law rigidity spectra with different maximum rigidities and different spectral indices. The shocks from high-mass supernovae exploding in OB associations are assumed to be the most powerful class of sources. This class of sources accelerates cosmic rays to a maximum rigidity of 4 × 10¹⁵ V. The shocks from nonassociated supernovae exploding into a random interstellar medium are assumed to be the next class (in order of decreasing power). This class of sources accelerates cosmic rays to a maximum rigidity of 5 × 10¹³ V. The third, weakest class of sources is assumed to accelerate cosmic rays to a maximum rigidity of 2 × 10¹¹ V. Nova explosions could be possible physical objects in this class.     

Cosmic Ray Nonlinear Processes in Space Plasma: Applications to the Dynamic Heliosphere

Influence of cosmic ray pressure and kinetic stream instability on space plasma dynamics and magnetic structure are considered. It is shown that in the outer Heliosphere are important dynamics effects of galactic cosmic ray pressure on solar wind and interplanetary shock wave propagation as well as on the formation of terminal shock wave of the Heliosphere and subsonic region between Heliosphere and interstellar medium. Kinetic stream instability effects are important on distances more than 40–60 AU from the Sun: formation of great anisotropy of galactic cosmic rays in about spiral interplanetary magnetic field leads to the Alfven turbulence generation by non isotropic cosmic ray fluxes. Generated Alfven turbulence influences on cosmic ray propagation, increases the cosmic ray modulation, decreases the cosmic ray anisotropy and increases the cosmic ray pressure gradient in the outer Heliosphere (the later is also important for terminal shock wave formation). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The interstellar magnetic field near the Galactic center

We review the current observational knowledge of the interstellar magnetic field within ∼150 pc ofthe Galactic center. We also discuss the various theoretical scenarios that have been put forward to explain the existing observations. Our critical overview leads to two important conclusions: (1) The interstellar magnetic field near the GC is approximately poloidal on average in the diffuse intercloud medium and approximately horizontal in dense interstellar clouds. (2) In the general intercloud medium, the field is relatively weak and probably close to equipartition with cosmic rays (B ∼ (6–20) μ G), but there exist a number of localized filaments where the field is much stronger (some filaments could possibly have B ≳ 1 mG). In dense interstellar clouds, the field is probably rather strong, with typical values ranging between a few 0.1 mG and a few mG (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Adiabatic deceleration of cosmic rays near their sources

Every plausible source of cosmic rays yields a high flux of cosmic rays near the source. The high flux leads to plasma effects that cause scattering of the cosmic rays, coupling to the interstellar gas and hence to adiabatic deceleration. The cosmic rays are released from the gas only when their pressure has fallen to the cosmic-ray pressure near the Sun multiplied by a factor between 10 and 100. I discuss a model aimed to minimize the deceleration before the cosmic rays are released. The volume which cosmic rays occupy before scattering is maximized by injection into a large but thin disk. Even then, deceleration is reduced only to a factor of two. Such deceleration should cause quasi-supernova remnants somewhat resembling the Cygnus loop but associated with much younger pulsars. Since both the required model and the predicted observations cause difficulties, the problem of adiabatic deceleration remains severe.Work supported by NSF grant GP-34742.     

Strong cosmic-ray scattering in an anisotropic random magnetic field

We calculate the kinetic coefficients and the transport mean free paths of high-energy particles parallel to the regular magnetic field in the approximation of a large-scale anisotropic random magnetic field by using a nonlinear collision integral, i.e., by taking into account the processes of strong random scattering. We consider the diffusion of solar and Galactic cosmic rays by two-dimensional turbulence. Strong random scattering by two-dimensional turbulence is shown to reduce the parallel transport mean free path several fold. The momentum dependence of the parallel mean free path does not change, Λ_∥ ∝ p^2?v. In the case of strong random scattering by turbulence formed by several modes, the parallel transport mean free path is Λ_∥ ∝ p. We show that two-dimensional turbulence can make a major contribution to the parallel transport mean free paths of cosmic rays in the heliosphere and the interstellar medium.     

Cosmic ray and hydrogen distributions and cosmic gamma — rays

We calculate the spectrum of the diffuse cosmic gamma ray in the single and double leaky box models for several galactic distribution laws of cosmic rays and hdydrogen. The results show that LI Ti-pei's distribution law for the cosmic rays is the best and that the number of interstellar hydrogen molecules should be less than Gordon's value divided by 1.7. The observed spectrum of gamma rays can be reproduced by a suitable choice of the galactic distributions within certain ranges.     

Vorticity generation behind interstellar shock fronts

It is shown that the development of vorticity in the wake of interstellar shocks provides a viable mechanism for the establishment of angular momentum in the interstellar medium (ISM). A plausible upper limit to the vorticity is estimated as a function of shock strength, geometry, and speed. Observations of rotating interstellar clouds and of stellar rotation in open clusters compare favourably with model predictions.     

Shock surfing acceleration

Analytical and numerical analysis identify shock surfing acceleration as an ideal pre-energization mechanism for the slow pick-up ions at quasiperpendicular shocks. After gaining sufficient energy by shock surfing, pick-up ions undergo diffusive acceleration to reach their observed energies. Energetic ions upstream of the cometary bow shock, acceleration of solar energetic particles by magnetosonic waves in corona, ion enhancement in interplanetary shocks, generation of anomalous cosmic rays from interstellar pick-up ions at the termination shock are some of the cases where shock surfing acceleration apply. Inclusion of the lower-hybrid wave turbulence into the laminar model of shock surfing can explain the preferential acceleration of heavier particles as observed by Voyager at the termination shock. At relativistic energies, unlimited acceleration of ions is theoretically possible; because for sufficiently strong shocks main limitation of the mechanism, caused by the escape of accelerated particles downstream of the shock during acceleration no longer exists.     

Influence of cosmic rays on propagation of long magneto hydrodynamic waves

The influence of relativistic particles on the dispersion properties of a cosmic plasma are considered. Use is made of the equation of magneto-hydrodynamics for the thermal plasma and the diffusion equation for cosmic rays. The mechanism of dissipation of the waves due to the diffusion of cosmic rays is shown to be predominant for magneto acoustic waves in the interstellar medium.     

Effects of shock processing on Serkowski polarization curves

This paper presents a semi-empirical model for variations of interstellar polarization curves based upon the Serkowski-Wilking law for optical and near-infrared wavebands. The model assumes that nonspherical dust grains producing interstellar polarization are core-mantle particles shaped like oblate spheroids. The physical picture is one in which large (a ₀ 0.1µm) particles in the dense cloud phase are deposited into the diffuse cloud medium and thereafter undergo mantle processing by galactic shocks and UV starlight. It is shown that polarization curves vary their widths mainly as a consequence of the nonthermal sputtering of mantles by low-velocity shocks. Mantle sputtering by shocks in low density clouds tends to broaden the curves, whereas mantle sputtering by shocks in denser clouds produce narrow curves. Hence, shock processing of grain mantles can explain the observed correlation between the width of polarization curves and the dust grain environment.     

Cosmic ray acceleration

This review describes the basic theory of cosmic ray acceleration by shocks including the plasma instabilities confining cosmic rays near the shock, the effect of the magnetic field orientation, the maximum cosmic ray energy and the shape of the cosmic ray spectrum. Attention is directed mainly towards Galactic cosmic rays accelerated by supernova remnants.     

Production spectrum of gamma rays in interstellar space through neutral pion decay

We have obtained a simple representation to the observed invariant cross-section for the production of neutral pions in proton-proton collisions. Making use of this representation, we have calculated the differential and integral production spectra of gamma rays in the Galaxy from interactions of cosmic ray nuclei with interstellar gas. It is shown that the uncertainties in deducing interstellar proton spectrum by demodulating the observed spectrum do not affect very much the gamma ray spectrum. We have also determined the gamma ray production spectrum through bremsstrahlung process for a typical interstellar electron spectrum derived from the radio spectrum in the Galaxy. From these, the total gamma ray production spectrum resulting from the interaction of cosmic rays with interstellar matter is compared with the observed gamma ray spectrum in the Galaxy and some inferences have been obtained. We also point out the possible uncertainty in the present calculation and suggest the improvements needed.     

Stability of the equilibrium distributions of interstellar gas,cosmic rays,and magnetic field in an external gravitational field

An interstellar medium consisting of regular and turbulent magnetic fields, thermal gas and cosmic rays is tested for stability in a stellar gravitational field. Cosmic rays are described by the diffusion-convection equation and the stability region of the system is determined. It is shown that the presence of cosmic rays is a stabilizing factor if the cosmic-ray diffusion coefficient is sufficiently small. The dependence of the maximum growth rate of instability on the cosmic-ray diffusion coefficient is qualitatively determined.     

Li Be B Energetics and Cosmic Ray Origin

Three different models have been proposed for LiBeB production bycosmic rays: the CRI model in which the cosmic rays areaccelerated out of an ISM of solar composition scaled withmetallicity; the CRS model in which cosmic rays with compositionsimilar to that of the current epoch cosmic rays are acceleratedout of fresh supernova ejecta; and the LECR model in which adistinct low energy component coexists with the postulated cosmicrays of the CRI model. These models are usually distinguished bytheir predictions concerning the evolution of the Be and Babundances. Here we emphasize the energetics which favor the CRSmodel. This model is also favored by observations showing that thebulk (80 to 90%) of all supernovae occur in hot, low densitysuperbubbles, where supernova shocks can accelerate the cosmicrays from supernova ejecta enriched matter. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.