1999/03/22 by V. Tatischeff, Tatischeff, V., R. Ramaty +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Atomic and Molecular Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #X-ray Spectroscopy and Fluorescence Analysis #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9903326
latex 9 pages, uses paspconf.sty, 4 figures. To appear in "LiBeB, Cosmic Rays and Gamma-Ray Line Astronomy", ASP Conference Series, eds. R. Ramaty, E. Vangioni-Flam, M. Casse and K. Olive
arxiv created 1999/03/22 · openalex publication_date 1999/03/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A distinct low energy cosmic-ray component has been proposed to explain the essentially constant Be/Fe ratio at low metallicities. Atomic collisions of such low energy ions produce characteristic nonthermal X-ray emission. In this paper, we study the possible contribution of such X-rays to the Galactic ridge emission. We show that they would account for < 10% of the 10-60 keV luminosity of the thin Galactic disk component detected with RXTE. They could make a more significant contribution in the 0.5-10 keV energy range, provided that the nonthermal ion population extends down to about 1 MeV/nucleon and delivers about 1042 erg s-1 to the interstellar medium, comparable to the total power suplied by the Galactic supernovae. But since the nonthermal X-rays in this energy range are essentially produced below the thresholds of the Be-producing cross sections, their detection does not necessarily imply a low energy cosmic-ray origin for the spallogenic light elements. A significant contribution of nonthermal X-rays could alleviate the problem of the origin of the hard component observed with ASCA in the Scutum arm region.