Gamma ray line production from cosmic ray spallation reactions

The gamma ray line intensities due to cosmic ray spallation reactions in clouds, the galactic disk and accreting binary pulsars are calculated. With the most favorable plausible assumptions, only a few lines may be detectable to the level of 0.0000001 per sq. cm per sec. The intensities are compared with those generated in nuclear excitation reactions

Implications of cross section errors for cosmic ray propagation

Errors in nuclear interaction cross sections are the single most important limitation on the analysis of cosmic ray composition data. At the 18th International Cosmic Ray Conference, the potential importance of correlations in cross section errors in determining cosmic ray source abundances was demonstrated. In this paper the magnitude of cross section error correlation is estimated. Analysis suggests that cross section errors are essentially uncorrelated for nuclei with Z 29 and that the actual errors may be less than the nominal 35%

Calculation of improved spallation cross sections

Several research groups have recently carried out highly precise measurements (to about 10 percent) of high-energy nuclear spallation cross sections. These measurements, above 5 GeV, cover a broad range of elements: V, Fe, Cu, Ag, Ta and Au. Even the small cross sections far off the peak of the isotopic distribution curves have been measured. The semiempirical calculations are compared with the measured values. Preliminary comparisons indicate that the parameters of our spallation relations (Silberberg and Tsao, 1973) for atomic numbers 20 to 83 need modifications, e.g. a reduced slope of the mass yield distribution, broader isotopic distributions, and a shift of the isotopic distribution toward the neutron-deficient side. The required modifications are negligible near Fe and Cu, but increase with increasing target mass

Response of Unruh-DeWitt detector with time-dependent acceleration

It is well known that a detector, coupled linearly to a quantum field and accelerating through the inertial vacuum with a constant acceleration $g$, will behave as though it is immersed in a radiation field with temperature $T=(g/2\pi)$. We study a generalization of this result for detectors moving with a time-dependent acceleration $g(\tau)$ along a given direction. After defining the rate of excitation of the detector appropriately, we evaluate this rate for time-dependent acceleration, $g(\tau)$, to linear order in the parameter $\eta = \dot g / g^2$. In this case, we have three length scales in the problem: $g^{-1}, (\dot g/g)^{-1}$ and $\omega^{-1}$ where $\omega$ is the energy difference between the two levels of the detector at which the spectrum is probed. We show that: (a) When $\omega^{-1} \ll g^{-1} \ll (\dot g/g)^{-1}$, the rate of transition of the detector corresponds to a slowly varying temperature $T(\tau) = g(\tau)/2 \pi$, as one would have expected. (b) However, when $g^{-1}\ll \omega^{-1} \ll (\dot g/g)^{-1}$, we find that the spectrum is modified \textit{even at the order $\mathcal{O}(\eta)$}. This is counter-intuitive because, in this case, the relevant frequency does not probe the rate of change of the acceleration since $(\dot g/g) \ll \omega$ and we certainly do not have deviation from the thermal spectrum when $\dot g =0$. This result shows that there is a subtle discontinuity in the behaviour of detectors with $\dot g = 0$ and $\dot g/g^2$ being arbitrarily small. We corroborate this result by evaluating the detector response for a particular trajectory which admits an analytic expression for the poles of the Wightman function.Comment: v1, 7 pages, no figures; v2, an Acknowledgment and some clarifying comments added, matches version accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Spallation dominated propagation of Heavy Cosmic Rays and the Local Interstellar Medium (LISM)

Measurements of ultra heavy nuclei at GeV/n energies in the galactic cosmic radiation address the question of the sources (nucleosynthetic s- and r-processes). As such, the determination of CR source abundances is a promising way to discriminate between existing nucleosynthesis models. For primary species (nuclei present and accelerated at sources), it is generally assumed that the relative propagated abundances, if they are close in mass, are not too different from their relative source abundances. Besides, the range of the correction factor associated to propagation has been estimated in weighted slab models only. Heavy CRs that are detected near Earth were accelerated from regions that are closer to us than were the light nuclei. Hence, the geometry of sources in the Solar neighbourhood, and as equally important, the geometry of gas in the same region, must be taken into account. In this paper, a two zone diffusion model is used, and as was previously investigated for radioactive species, we report here on the impact of the local interstellar medium (LISM) feature (under-dense medium over a scale ~100 pc) on primary and secondary stable nuclei propagated abundances. Going down to Fe nuclei, the connection between heavy and light abundances is also inspected. A general trend is found that decreases the UHCR source abundances relative to the HCR ones. This could have an impact on the level of r-process required to reproduce the data.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted by A&A. Comparison with truncated weighted slab and discussion added. Figure 8 modified. New appendix on truncated weighted slab techniqu

Propagation of cosmic rays and new evidence for distributed acceleration

The origin and propagation of cosmic rays in terms of conventional and supplementary newer assumptions were explored. Cosmic rays are considered to be accelerated by supernoava shock waves and to traverse clouds in the source region. After rigidity-dependent escape from these clouds into interstellar space, cosmic rays are further accelerated by the weakened shocks of old supernova remnants and then pass through additional material. The distributed acceleration hypothesis is discussed with emphasis on recent data on the abundances of cosmic-ray isotopes of N above 1 GeV/u and of He near 6 GeV/u

The GEMS Approach to Stationary Motions in the Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes

We generalize the work of Deser and Levin on the unified description of Hawking radiation and Unruh effect to general stationary motions in spherically symmetric black holes. We have also matched the chemical potential term of the thermal spectrum of the two sides for uncharged black holes.Comment: Latex file, 12 pages, no figure; v2: typos fixed; v3: minor corrections, final version published in JHE

On the response of detectors in classical electromagnetic backgrounds

I study the response of a detector that is coupled non-linearly to a quantized complex scalar field in different types of classical electromagnetic backgrounds. Assuming that the quantum field is in the vacuum state, I show that, when in {\it inertial} motion, the detector responds {\it only} when the electromagnetic background produces particles. However, I find that the response of the detector is {\it not} proportional to the number of particles produced by the background.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, Final versio