The age distribution of galactic cosmic rays

The distribution of ages for secondary and interacting cosmic-ray nuclei is derived for a class of steady-state, bounded models of diffusion in the galaxy. Results are presented in detail for the model in which diffusion is in one dimension, sources are uniformly distributed throughout the scattering region, and particles are observed near the central plane of the galaxy. The leakage-lifetime approximation is shown to be accurate as long as the ratio of the cosmic-ray diffusive lifetime to the mean interaction or decay lifetime is less than about ten.