The Interstellar Radiation Field of the Milky Way

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

The Galactic interstellar radiation field (ISRF) is the result of emission by stars, and the scattering, absorption, and re-emission of absorbed starlight by dust in the interstellar medium (ISM). The main energy losses of cosmic-ray electrons and positrons at GeV energies and higher are due to inverse Compton (IC) interactions with the ISRF and synchrotron radiation on the Galactic magnetic field. The IC energy losses produce gamma rays which comprise a significant fraction of the Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission. Modelling of the ISRF is therefore of fundamental interest for gamma-ray astronomy and hence for the GLAST mission to be launched soon. The fundamental factors influencing the ISRF are the luminosity distribution from the stellar populations of the Galaxy and the radiative transport of the star light through the ISM. Our calculation of the ISRF is based on a Monte Carlo method and incorporates recent information on the Galactic stellar and dust distributions. We present results for the spectral energy and angular distribution of the ISRF as a function of position in the Galaxy.

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