Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2006-11-20
Phys.Rev.Lett.98:121101,2007
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
To be published in Phys. Rev. Lett
Scientific paper
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.121101
It is commonly assumed that high-energy gamma-rays are made via either purely electromagnetic processes or the hadronic process of pion production, followed by decay. We investigate astrophysical contexts where a third process (A*) may dominate, namely the photo-disintegration of highly boosted nuclei followed by daughter de-excitation. Starbust regions such as Cygnus OB2 appear to be promising sites for TeV gamma-ray emission via this mechanism. A unique feature of the A* process is a sharp energy minimum ~ 10 TeV/(T/eV) for gamma-ray emission from a thermal region of temperature T. We also check that a diffuse gamma-ray component resulting from the interaction of a possible extreme-energy cosmic-ray nuclei with background radiation is well below the observed EGRET data. The A* mechanism described herein offers an important contribution to gamma-ray astronomy in the era of intense observational activity.
Anchordoqui Luis A.
Beacom John F.
Goldberg Haim
Palomares-Ruiz Sergio
Weiler Thomas J.
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