Cosmic ray signatures of a 2–3 Myr old local supernova

2017/10/31 by M. Kachelriess, M. Kachelrieß, A. Neronov +2 · 2 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Antiproton #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #COSMIC cancer database #Chemistry #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Electron #Flux (metallurgy) #Nuclear physics #Particle Detector Development and Performance #Physics #Plateau (mathematics) #Positron #Proton #Range (aeronautics) #Spectral line #Supernova #astro-ph.HE

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.97.063011

published as Phys. Rev. D 97, 063011 (2018) · v2: added section on electrons, references and extended discussion; to appear in PRD; 10 pages, 7 pdf figures

openalex created_date 2017/10/20 · arxiv created 2018/02/26 · openalex publication_date 2018/03/20 · arxiv updated 2018/03/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The supernova explosion which deposited ⁶⁰Fe isotopes on Earth 2--3 million years ago should have also produced cosmic rays which contribute to the locally observed cosmic ray flux. We show that the contribution of this ``local source'' causes the ``anomalies'' observed in the positron and antiproton fluxes and explains why their spectral shapes agree with that of the proton flux. At the same time, this local source component accounts for the difference in the slopes of the spectra of cosmic ray nuclei as the result of the slightly varying relative importance of the ``local'' and the average component for distinct CR nuclei. Such a ``local supernova'' model for the spectra of nuclei can be tested via a combined measurement of the energy dependence of the boron-to-carbon (primary-to-secondary cosmic rays) ratio and of the antiproton spectrum: while the antiproton spectrum is predicted to extend approximately as a power law into the TeV range without any softening break, the B/C ratio is expected to show a ``plateau'' at a level fixed by the observed positron excess in the 30--300 GeV range. We discuss the observability of such a plateau with dedicated experiments for the measurement of the cosmic ray composition in the 10 TeV energy range (NUCLEON, ISS-CREAM).

Citations

• PAMELA Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Proton and Helium Spectra
• AMS-02 Results Support the Secondary Origin of Cosmic Ray Positrons
• ORIGIN OF THE COSMIC-RAY SPECTRAL HARDENING
• Is the PAMELA anomaly caused by supernova explosions near the Earth?
• THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE POSITRON FRACTION ANOMALY AND THE SPECTRAL FEATURES IN GALACTIC COSMIC-RAY HADRONS
• High Statistics Measurement of the Positron Fraction in Primary Cosmic Rays of 0.5–500 GeV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station
• An anomalous positron abundance in cosmic rays with energies 1.5–100 GeV
• Cosmic-Ray Propagation and Interactions in the Galaxy
• COSMIC-RAY PROTON AND HELIUM SPECTRA FROM THE FIRST CREAM FLIGHT
• Electron and Positron Fluxes in Primary Cosmic Rays Measured with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station
• Testing Astrophysical Models for the PAMELA Positron Excess with Cosmic Ray Nuclei
• TERRESTRIAL EFFECTS OF NEARBY SUPERNOVAE IN THE EARLY PLEISTOCENE
• IMPRINT OF A 2 MILLION YEAR OLD SOURCE ON THE COSMIC-RAY ANISOTROPY

Cited by

• Pion decay model of the Tibet-ASγ PeV gamma-ray signal
• Galactic factories of cosmic-ray electrons and positrons