915 research outputs found
A Cerenkov imaging telescope for high energy gamma rays
A large area gamma ray telescope based on the gas Cerenkov imaging technique is presented. The performances of the instrument for the observation of high energy gamma ray point sources are discussed
On the importance of interstellar helium for the propagation of heavy cosmic rays
The influence of interstellar He on the fragmentation of heavy cosmic rays in the interstellar medium (ISM) has long been a controversial subject. While H-induced cross section data are now avialable over broad mass and energy ranges, little data for He-induced fragmentation exists. With the recent reports of accurate measurements of the secondary/primary ratios in cosmic rays and of H-induced cross sections the problem of including interstellar He in propagation calculations becomes even more critical. As is argued the escape lengths lambda e deduced from the B/C+) and Sc-Cr/Fe ratios cannot be reconciled within the frame of a simple leaky box model assuming the ISM composed of pure H. It is quite remarkable that the discrepancy is especially large in the GeV region where (1) secondary/primary ratios measured by several groups agree fairly well and (2) fragmentation cross sections have been recently measured with good accuracy
Radio to Gamma-Ray Emission from Shell-type Supernova Remnants: Predictions from Non-linear Shock Acceleration Models
Supernova remnants (SNRs) are widely believed to be the principal source of
galactic cosmic rays. Such energetic particles can produce gamma-rays and lower
energy photons via interactions with the ambient plasma. In this paper, we
present results from a Monte Carlo simulation of non-linear shock structure and
acceleration coupled with photon emission in shell-like SNRs. These
non-linearities are a by-product of the dynamical influence of the accelerated
cosmic rays on the shocked plasma and result in distributions of cosmic rays
which deviate from pure power-laws. Such deviations are crucial to acceleration
efficiency and spectral considerations, producing GeV/TeV intensity ratios that
are quite different from test particle predictions. The Sedov scaling solution
for SNR expansions is used to estimate important shock parameters for input
into the Monte Carlo simulation. We calculate ion and electron distributions
that spawn neutral pion decay, bremsstrahlung, inverse Compton, and synchrotron
emission, yielding complete photon spectra from radio frequencies to gamma-ray
energies. The cessation of acceleration caused by the spatial and temporal
limitations of the expanding SNR shell in moderately dense interstellar regions
can yield spectral cutoffs in the TeV energy range; these are consistent with
Whipple's TeV upper limits on unidentified EGRET sources. Supernova remnants in
lower density environments generate higher energy cosmic rays that produce
predominantly inverse Compton emission at super-TeV energies; such sources will
generally be gamma-ray dim at GeV energies.Comment: 62 pages, AASTeX format, including 1 table and 11 figures, accepted
for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (Vol 513, March 1, 1999
Contagious Rhino-Tonsillitis (C.R.T.): A New Virus Entity Unrelated To Other Infectious Diseases In The Dog
Since the winter of 1955, a very severe outbreak of a highly contagious disease has destroyed thousands of dogs in France. It was determined that the disease had originated in Normandy and from there it spread to the English Channel and then to the Paris suburbs. Afterwards, similar cases were diagnosed in many parts of France
Electrodynamic Structure of an Outer Gap Accelerator: Location of the Gap and the Gamma-ray Emission from the Crab Pulsar
We investigate a stationary pair production cascade in the outer
magnetosphere of a spinning neutron star. The charge depletion due to global
flows of charged particles, causes a large electric field along the magnetic
field lines. Migratory electrons and/or positrons are accelerated by this field
to radiate curvature gamma-rays, some of which collide with the X-rays to
materialize as pairs in the gap. The replenished charges partially screen the
electric field, which is self-consistently solved together with the
distribution functions of particles and gamma-rays. If no current is injected
at neither of the boundaries of the accelerator, the gap is located around the
conventional null surface, where the local Goldreich-Julian charge density
vanishes. However, we first find that the gap position shifts outwards (or
inwards) when particles are injected at the inner (or outer) boundary. Applying
the theory to the Crab pulsar, we demonstrate that the pulsed TeV flux does not
exceed the observational upper limit for moderate infrared photon density and
that the gap should be located near to or outside of the conventional null
surface so that the observed spectrum of pulsed GeV fluxes may be emitted via a
curvature process. Some implications of the existence of a solution for a super
Goldreich-Julian current are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Ap
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