Abstract

Abstract. Astrospheres and wind bubbles of massive stars are believed to be sources of cosmic rays with energies E ≲ 1 TeV. These particles are not directly detectable, but their impact on surrounding matter, in particular ionisation of atomic and molecular hydrogen, can lead to observable signatures. A correlation study of both gamma ray emission, induced by proton-proton interactions of cosmic ray protons with kinetic energies Ep ≥ 280 MeV with ambient hydrogen, and ionisation induced by cosmic ray protons of kinetic energies Ep < 280 MeV can be performed in order to study potential sources of (sub)TeV cosmic rays.

Highlights

  • While supernova remnants are the main candidate for the acceleration of Galactic cosmic rays, i.e., cosmic rays with energies E 1018 eV, there are other acceleration sources contributing to the total diffuse flux of cosmic rays

  • While for supernova remnants associated with molecular clouds it is difficult to find an adequate background source with known photon spectrum, this does not pose a problem for astrospheres, since the classification of the star provides a reasonable estimate of the local radiation field at the corresponding wavelengths in the IRand submm-domain

  • A correlation study of both gamma rays formed via protonproton interactions of cosmic ray protons of kinetic energies Ep ≥ 280 MeV with ambient matter and ionisation signatures induced by cosmic ray protons of lower energies can be used to examine cosmic ray acceleration in many different astrophysical sources, such as supernova remnants, astrospheres, and wind bubbles of massive stars

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Summary

Introduction

While supernova remnants are the main candidate for the acceleration of Galactic cosmic rays (see, e.g., Baade and Zwicky, 1934; Ackermann et al, 2013), i.e., cosmic rays with energies E 1018 eV, there are other acceleration sources contributing to the total diffuse flux of cosmic rays Among these are astrospheres and wind bubbles of massive stars, which are capable of accelerating cosmic rays up to kinetic energies of E 1 TeV and may, be dominant in this energy domain (see, e.g., Casse and Paul, 1980; Voelk and Forman, 1982; Binns et al, 2005; Scherer et al, 2008). The model developed therein can be adapted to astrospheres and wind bubbles of massive stars

Cosmic ray-induced ionisation
Cosmic ray composition
Photoionisation
Ionisation signatures
Findings
Conclusions
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