The future of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy: SNR and cosmic rays

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

Recently, the Division of Astrophysics of the American Physical Society requested the preparation of a White Paper on the status and future of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. A number of science working groups have formed to explore the scientific questions that may be addressed with a future observatory. Here we report preliminary findings of the working group Supernova remnants and cosmic rays. Among the most pressing questions are the following: Are cosmic rays above the knee really Galactic in origin? What is the origin of the spectral break at 3 PeV known as the knee? What is the spectrum of cosmic ray electrons above 1 TeV? What is the origin of the extended sources which are very bright in TeV gamma-rays, but remain almost silent at lower frequencies? Are isolated SNRs the main sources of cosmic ray ions? Do shocks in SNRs produce strong magnetic-field amplification and is the particle acceleration process efficient enough to account for this? Due to the ubiquitous presence of shocks and high-energy particles in the universe, these questions will impact a large number of applications in astrophysics and cosmology, but are also related to problems in plasma fusion research. A key to answering them with any future VHE observatory will be the unambiguous disentanglement of emission from electronic versus hadronic cosmic rays.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The future of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy: SNR and cosmic rays does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The future of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy: SNR and cosmic rays, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The future of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy: SNR and cosmic rays will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1684473

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.