The Origin of Cosmic Rays from Supernova Remnants

Abstract

The origin of cosmic rays is one of the key questions in high-energy astrophysics. Supernovae have been always considered as the dominant sources of cosmic rays below the energy spectrum knee. Multi-wavelength observations indeed show that supernova remnants are capable for accelerating particles into sub-PeV (1015 eV) energies. Diffusive shock acceleration is considered as one of the most efficient acceleration mechanisms of astrophysical high-energy particles, which may just operate effectively in the large-scale shocks of supernova remnants. Recently, a series of high-precision ground and space experiments have greatly promoted the study of cosmic rays and supernova remnants. New observational features challenge the classical acceleration model by diffusive shock and the application to the scenario of supernova remnants for the origin of Galactic cosmic rays, and have deepened our understanding to the cosmic high-energy phenomena. In combination with the time evolution of radiation energy spectrum of supernova remnants, a time-dependent particle acceleration model is established, which can not only explain the anomalies in cosmic-ray distributions around 200 GV, but also naturally form the cosmic-ray spectrum knee, even extend the contribution of supernova particle acceleration to cosmic ray flux up to the spectrum ankle. This model predicts that the high-energy particle transport behavior is dominated by the turbulent convection, which needs to be verified by future observations and plasma numerical simulations relevant to the particle transport.