2006/10/02 by Stefano Gabici, Felix A. Aharonian, Felix Aharonian +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #COSMIC cancer database #Cosmic ray #Galactic plane #Gamma ray #Interstellar cloud #Interstellar medium #Molecular cloud #Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10509-007-9427-6
published as Astrophys.SpaceSci.309:365-371,2007 · Proceeding of "The multi messenger approach to high energy gamma ray sources", Barcelona, June 2006
arxiv created 2006/10/02 · openalex publication_date 2007/04/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
It is believed that the observed diffuse gamma ray emission from the galactic plane is the result of interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar gas. Such emission can be amplified if cosmic rays penetrate into dense molecular clouds. The propagation of cosmic rays inside a molecular cloud has been studied assuming an arbitrary energy and space dependent diffusion coefficient. If the diffusion coefficient inside the cloud is significantly smaller compared to the average one derived for the galactic disk, the observed gamma ray spectrum appears harder than the cosmic ray spectrum, mainly due to the slower penetration of the low energy particles towards the core of the cloud. This may produce a great variety of gamma ray spectra.