199 research outputs found
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays threshold in Randers-Finsler space
Kinematics in Finsler space is used to study the propagation of ultra high
energy cosmic rays particles through the cosmic microwave background radiation.
We find that the GZK threshold is lifted dramatically in Randers-Finsler space.
A tiny deformation of spacetime from Minkowskian to Finslerian allows more
ultra-high energy cosmic rays particles arrive at the earth. It is suggested
that the lower bound of particle mass is related with the negative second
invariant speed in Randers-Finsler space
Diffusive propagation of cosmic rays from supernova remnants in the Galaxy. II: anisotropy
We investigate the effects of stochasticity in the spatial and temporal
distribution of supernova remnants on the anisotropy of cosmic rays observed at
Earth. The calculations are carried out for different choices of the diffusion
coefficient D(E) for propagation in the Galaxy. The propagation and spallation
of nuclei are taken into account. At high energies we assume that
, with and being the
reference scenarios. The large scale distribution of supernova remnants in the
Galaxy is modeled following the distribution of pulsars with and without
accounting for the spiral structure of the Galaxy. Our calculations allow us to
determine the contribution to anisotropy resulting from both the large scale
distribution of SNRs in the Galaxy and the random distribution of the nearest
remnants. The naive expectation that the anisotropy amplitude scales as D(E) is
shown to be an oversimplification which does not reflect in the predicted
anisotropy for any realistic distribution of the sources. The fluctuations in
the anisotropy pattern are dominated by nearby sources, so that predicting or
explaining the observed anisotropy amplitude and phase becomes close to
impossible. We find however that the very weak energy dependence of the
anisotropy amplitude below GeV and the rise at higher energies, can
best be explained if the diffusion coefficient is . Faster
diffusion, for instance with , leads in general to an exceedingly
large anisotropy amplitude. The spiral structure introduces interesting trends
in the energy dependence of the anisotropy pattern, which qualitatively reflect
the trend seen in the data. For large values of the halo size we find that the
anisotropy becomes dominated by the large scale regular structure of the source
distribution, leading indeed to a monotonic increase of with energy.Comment: 21 Pages, to appear in JCA
Evidence of TeV gamma-ray emission from the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253
TeV gamma-rays were recently detected from the nearby normal spiral galaxy
NGC 253 (Itoh et al., 2002). Observations to detect the Cherenkov light images
initiated by gamma-rays from the direction of NGC 253 were carried out in 2000
and 2001 over a total period of 150 hours. The orientation of images in
gamma-ray--like events is not consistent with emission from a point source, and
the emission region corresponds to a size greater than 10 kpc in radius. Here,
detailed descriptions of the analysis procedures and techniques are given.Comment: 16 pages, 27 figures, aa.cl
Very High Energy Gamma Rays from PSR1706-44
We have obtained evidence of gamma-ray emission above 1 TeV from PSR1706-44,
using a ground-based telescope of the atmospheric \v{C}erenkov imaging type
located near Woomera, South Australia. This object, a -ray source
discovered by the COS B satellite (2CG342-02), was identified with the radio
pulsar through the discovery of a 102 ms pulsed signal with the EGRET
instrument of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The flux of the present
observation above a threshold of 1 TeV is 1 10
photons cm s, which is two orders of magnitude smaller than the
extrapolation from GeV energies. The analysis is not restricted to a search for
emission modulated with the 102 ms period, and the reported flux is for all
-rays from PSR1706-44, pulsed and unpulsed. The energy output in the
TeV region corresponds to about 10 of the spin down energy loss rate of
the neutron star.Comment: 13 pages, latex format (article), 2 figures include
Evidence for TeV gamma-ray emission from the shell type SNR RXJ1713.7-3946
We report the results of TeV gamma-ray observations of the shell type SNR
RXJ1713.7-3946 (G347.3-0.5). The discovery of strong non-thermal X-ray emission
from the northwest part of the remnant strongly suggests the existence of
electrons with energies up to 100 TeV in the remnant, making the SNR a good
candidate TeV gamma-ray source. We observed RXJ1713.7-3946 from May to August
1998 with the CANGAROO 3.8m atmospheric imaging Cerenkov telescope and obtained
evidence for TeV gamma-ray emission from the NW rim of the remnant with the
significance of 5.6 sigma. The observed TeV gamma-ray flux from the NW rim
region was estimated to be (5.3 +/- 0.9[statistical] +/- 1.6[systematic]) *
10^{-12} photons cm^{-2} s^{-1} at energies >= 1.8 +/- 0.9 TeV. The data
indicate that the emitting region is much broader than the point spread
function of our telescope. The extent of the emission is consistent with that
of hard X-rays observed by ASCA. This TeV gamma-ray emission can be attributed
to the Inverse Compton scattering of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
by shock accelerated ultra-relativistic electrons. Under this assumption, a
rather low magnetic field of 11 micro gauss is deduced for the remnant from our
observation.Comment: Accepted for publication by Astronomy and Astrophysics (5 pages, 2
figures
Quantum theory's last challenge
Quantum mechanics is now 100 years old and still going strong. Combining
general relativity with quantum mechanics is the last hurdle to be overcome in
the "quantum revolution".Comment: (9 pages, LaTex) This is the preprint version of an article that
appeared in the issue 6813 (volume 408) of Nature, as part of a 3-article
celebration of the 100th anniversary of Planck's solution of the
black-body-radiation proble
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