High-energy gamma rays from the ‘single source’ of the knee

Abstract

Recently, Erlykin and Wolfendale (Erlykin A D and Wolfendale A W 1997 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 23 979) have proposed a ‘single source’ model of cosmic rays in which an explosion of a single, nearby and recent supernova is responsible for the ‘knee’ structure of the primary cosmic ray energy spectrum. In this paper, we discuss some estimates of the flux of gamma rays to be observed on the Earth from the proposed ‘single source’ of the knee. When compared with the observation, it appears that the single source, if it exists, is unlikely to be a supernova remnant.