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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
De-excitation nuclear gamma-ray line emission from low-energy cosmic rays in the inner galaxy
Astrophysical Journal, Volume 763, No. 2, Article 98, Year 2013
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Description
Recent observations of high ionization rates of molecular hydrogen in diffuse interstellar clouds point to a distinct low-energy cosmic-ray component. Supposing that this component is made of nuclei, two models for the origin of such particles are explored and low-energy cosmic-ray spectra are calculated, which, added to the standard cosmic-ray spectra, produce the observed ionization rates. The clearest evidence of the presence of such low-energy nuclei between a few MeV nucleon-1 and several hundred MeV nucleon-1 in the interstellar medium would be a detection of nuclear γ -ray line emission in the range Eγ ∼ 0.1-10 MeV, which is strongly produced in their collisions with the interstellar gas and dust. Using a recent γ -ray cross section compilation for nuclear collisions, γ -ray line emission spectra are calculated alongside the high-energy γ -ray emission due to π0 decay, the latter providing normalization of the absolute fluxes by comparison with Fermi-LAT observations of the diffuse emission above Eγ = 0.1 GeV. Our predicted fluxes of strong nuclear γ -ray lines from the inner Galaxy are well below the detection sensitivities of the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, but a detection, especially of the 4.4MeV line, seems possible with new-generation γ -ray telescopes based on available technology.We also predict strong γ -ray continuum emission in the 1-8 MeV range, which, in a large part of our model space for low-energy cosmic rays, considerably exceeds the estimated instrument sensitivities of future telescopes. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
Authors & Co-Authors
Benhabiles-Mezhoud, H.
France, Paris
In2p3 - Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique Des Particules
Algeria, Boumerdes
Université de Boumerdes
Kiener, Jürgen K.
France, Paris
In2p3 - Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique Des Particules
Tatischeff, Vincent
France, Paris
In2p3 - Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique Des Particules
Strong, Andrew W.
Germany, Garching Bei Munchen
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Statistics
Citations: 25
Authors: 4
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1088/0004-637X/763/2/98
ISSN:
0004637X
e-ISSN:
15384357
Research Areas
Cancer
Environmental