TeV Gamma-Ray Observations and the Origin of Cosmic Rays III

Being primarily devoted to the physics interpretation, the talk starts with the stereoscopic observation technique pioneered by HEGRA. The search for Supernova Remnants is reviewed, the need for a consistent theory is argued, and its elements are outlined. This theory is the basis for models regarding SN 1006 and Cas A. The analysis shows for the first time that emission spectra and morphological detail are in agreement with the concept that these objects are representative members of a suspected source population in the Galaxy. The continuing study of this population is an essential part of the program of the major new gamma-ray instruments.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, Plenary Talk at the 28th International Cosmic Ray Conference, July 31 - August 7, 2003, in Tsukuba, Japan. To be published 2003 by Universal Academy Press, Inc. - Tokyo, Japan. Changes are in captions of Figs. 3, 7a, and 8

Nonthermal and thermal emission from the supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946

A nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in supernova remnants (SNRs) is employed to investigate the properties of SNR RX J1713.7-3946. Observations of the non-thermal radio and X-ray emission spectra as well as the H.E.S.S. measurements of the very high energy gamma-ray emission are used to constrain the astronomical and CR acceleration parameters of the system. It is argued that RX J1713.7-3946 is a core collapse supernova (SN) of type II/Ib with a massive progenitor, has an age of ~1600 yr and is at a distance of ~1 kpc. It is in addition assumed that the CR injection/acceleration takes place uniformly across the shock surface for this kind of core collapse SNR. The theory gives a consistent description for all the existing observational data, including the non-detection of thermal X-rays and the spatial correlation of the X-ray and gamma-ray emission in the remnant. Specifically it is shown that an efficient production of nuclear CRs, leading to strong shock modification and a large downstream magnetic field strength B_d ~140 mkG can reproduce in detail the observed synchrotron emission from radio to X-ray frequencies together with the gamma-ray spectral characteristics as observed by the H.E.S.S. telescopes. The calculations are consistent with RX J1713.7-3946 being an efficient source of nuclear cosmic rays.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic

A macroscopic quasi linear theory of the garden hose instability

Macroscopic quasilinear theory of garden hose instabilit

[C II] emission and star formation in late-type galaxies. II A model

We study the relationship between gas cooling via the [C II] (158 micron) line emission and dust cooling via the far-IR continuum emission on the global scale of a galaxy in normal (i.e. non-AGN dominated and non-starburst) late-type systems. It is known that the luminosity ratio of total gas and dust cooling, L(C II)/L(FIR), shows a non-linear behaviour with the equivalent width of the Halpha line emission, the ratio decreasing in galaxies of lower massive star-formation activity. This result holds despite the fact that known individual Galactic and extragalactic sources of the [C II] line emission show different [C II] line-to-far-IR continuum emission ratios. This non-linear behaviour is reproduced by a simple quantitative model of gas and dust heating from different stellar populations, assuming that the photoelectric effect on dust, induced by far-UV photons, is the dominant mechanism of gas heating in the general diffuse interstellar medium of the galaxies under investigation. According to the model, the global L(C II)/L(FIR) provides a direct measure of the fractional amount of non-ionizing UV light in the interstellar radiation field and not of the efficiency of the photoelectric heating. The model also defines a method to constrain the stellar initial mass function from measurements of L(C II) and L(FIR). A sample of 20 Virgo cluster galaxies observed in the [C II] line with the LWS on board ISO is used to illustrate the model. The limited statistics and the necessary assumptions behind the determination of the global [C II] luminosities from the spatially limited data do not allow us to establish definitive conclusions but data-sets available in the future will allow tests of both the reliability of the assumptions of our model and the statistical significance of our results.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures (included), accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Energetic Particles in Clusters of Galaxies and Starburst Galaxies

The nonthermal characteristics of starburst galaxies and galaxy clusters are reviewed and the perspectives for their observation in high energy gamma rays discussed. It is argued that starburst galaxies should have physically similar and even simpler nonthermal properties as our Galaxy, the particle transport being convective in their strong galactic winds. They should be measurable in TeV gamma rays by large detectors, and in fact the recent detection of NGC 253 is a first demonstration. Galaxy clusters are equally expected to produce a nonthermal energetic nuclear particle component that gives unambiguous information about the entropy production history in clusters. Both types of objects should be main sources of and at the same time also major visible representatives for the ubiquitous nonthermal component of matter in the Universe.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures: Invited paper presented at "The Universe Viewed in Gamma-Rays" held on 25-28 Sept. 2002 in Kashiwa Japan. See http://icrhp9.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Symp2002.htm

The gradient of diffuse gamma-ray emission in the Galaxy

We show that the well-known discrepancy between the radial dependence of the Galactic cosmic ray (CR) nucleon distribution, as inferred most recently from EGRET observations of diffuse gamma-rays above 100 MeV, and of the most likely CR source distribution (supernova remnants, pulsars) can be explained purely by PROPAGATION effects. Contrary to previous claims, we demonstrate that this is possible, if the dynamical coupling between the escaping CRs and thermal plasma is taken into account, and thus a self-consistent GALACTIC WIND calculation is carried out. Given a dependence of the CR source distribution on Galactocentric radius, r, our numerical wind solutions show that the CR outflow velocity, V(r,z) depends both on r, and on vertical distance, z, at reference level z_C. The latter is defined as the transition boundary from diffusion to advection dominated CR transport and is therefore also a function of r. In fact, the CR escape time averaged over particle energies decreases with increasing CR source strength. Such an increase is counteracted by a reduced average CR residence time in the gas disk. Therfore pronounced peaks in the radial source distribution result in mild radial gamma-ray gradients at GeV energies, as it has been observed. This effect is enhanced by anisotropic diffusion, assuming different radial and vertical diffusion coefficients. We have calculated 2D analytic solutions of the stationary diffusion-advection equation, including anisotropic diffusion, for a given CR source distribution and a realistic outflow velocity field V(r,z), inferred from self-consistent numerical Galactic Wind simulations. At TeV energies the gamma-rays from the sources are expected to dominate the observed "diffuse" flux from the disk. Its observation should allow an empirical test of the theory presented.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Main Journa