Fermi has detected gamma-ray emission from eight globular clusters. We
suggest that the gamma-ray emission from globular clusters may result from the
inverse Compton scattering between relativistic electrons/positrons in the
pulsar wind of MSPs in the globular clusters and background soft photons
including cosmic microwave/relic photons, background star lights in the
clusters, the galactic infrared photons and the galactic star lights. We show
that the gamma-ray spectrum from 47 Tuc can be explained equally well by upward
scattering of either the relic photons, the galactic infrared photons or the
galactic star lights whereas the gamma-ray spectra from other seven globular
clusters are best fitted by the upward scattering of either the galactic
infrared photons or the galactic star lights. We also find that the observed
gamma-ray luminosity is correlated better with the combined factor of the
encounter rate and the background soft photon energy density. Therefore the
inverse Compton scattering may also contribute to the observed gamma-ray
emission from globular clusters detected by Fermi in addition to the standard
curvature radiation process. Furthermore, we find that the emission region of
high energy photons from globular cluster produced by inverse Compton
scattering is substantially larger than the core of globular cluster with a
radius >10pc. The diffuse radio and X-rays emitted from globular clusters can
also be produced by synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering
respectively. We suggest that future observations including radio, X-rays, and
gamma-rays with energy higher than 10 GeV and better angular resolution can
provide better constraints for the models.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, Comments may send to Prof. K.S. Cheng:
[email protected]
