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ASTRA Proceedings An open-access journal for refereed proceedings in extraterrestrial research
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Articles | Volume 2
ASTRA Proc., 2, 57–62, 2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/ap-2-57-2015
ASTRA Proc., 2, 57–62, 2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/ap-2-57-2015

  12 Nov 2015

12 Nov 2015

Gamma-ray emitting supernova remnants as the origin of Galactic cosmic rays

M. Kroll, J. Becker Tjus, B. Eichmann, and N. Nierstenhöfer M. Kroll et al.
  • Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Plasma Astroparticle Physics, 44780 Bochum, Germany

Abstract. It is generally believed that the cosmic ray spectrum below the knee is of Galactic origin, although the exact sources making up the entire cosmic ray energy budget are still unknown. Including effects of magnetic amplification, Supernova Remnants (SNR) could be capable of accelerating cosmic rays up to a few PeV and they represent the only source class with a sufficient non-thermal energy budget to explain the cosmic ray spectrum up to the knee. Now, gamma-ray measurements of SNRs for the first time allow to derive the cosmic ray spectrum at the source, giving us a first idea of the concrete, possible individual contributions to the total cosmic ray spectrum. In this contribution, we use these features as input parameters for propagating cosmic rays from its origin to Earth using GALPROP in order to investigate if these supernova remnants reproduce the cosmic ray spectrum and if supernova remnants in general can be responsible for the observed energy budget.

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