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ASTRA Proceedings An open-access journal for refereed proceedings in extraterrestrial research
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Articles | Volume 1
ASTRA Proc., 1, 29–31, 2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/ap-1-29-2014
ASTRA Proc., 1, 29–31, 2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/ap-1-29-2014

  27 Jun 2014

27 Jun 2014

Cosmic ray particles from exploding massive stars with winds

P. L. Biermann1,2,3,4 P. L. Biermann
  • 1Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy Bonn (MPIfR), Bonn, Germany
  • 2Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
  • 3Institute of Nuclear Physics (IKP), KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 4Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Abstract. The origin of cosmic rays is still unsettled. Many sources have been proposed over the years, and exploding stars still provide the most promising candidates. Here we examine one of these scenarios, and compare the resulting predictions with data: Massive stars have winds, and when these stars explode, the resulting shock runs through the wind. The observable phenomenon is called radio-supernova, and many have been observed in non-thermal radio emission. This emission allows to determine the magnetic field in the wind as a function of radius, and so allows to check, whether such explosions can achieve the high energies required and also explain the flux and the spectra of cosmic rays. The observations show this to be the case, and so we conclude that radio supernovae can explain the high-energy Galactic cosmic rays over the entire energy range, and that the spectral predictions are compatible with observations.

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