Physics
Scientific paper
Jan 1989
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989ssrv...49...17h&link_type=abstract
Space Science Reviews, Volume 49, Issue 1-2, pp. 17-39
Physics
Scientific paper
The correlation between diffuse galactic gamma rays and gas tracers is studied using the final COS-B database and H i and CO surveys covering the entire galactic plane. A good quantitative fit to the gamma rays is obtained, with a small galacto-centric gradient in the gamma-ray emissivity per hydrogen atom. The average ratio of H2 column density to integrated CO temperature is determined, the best estimate being (2.3 ± 0.3) × 102 molecules cm-2 (K km s-1)-1. Strictly taken, this value is an upper limit. The corresponding mass of molecular hydrogen in the inner galaxy, derived using both 1st and 4th quadrants, is 1.0 × 109 M &sun;. The softer gamma-ray spectrum towards the inner galaxy found in previous work can be attributed to a steeper emissivity gradient at low energies and/or to a softer gamma-ray spectrum of the emission distributed like molecular gas. A steeper emissivity gradient at low energies could be related to cosmic-ray spectral variations in the Galaxy, to different distributions of cosmic-ray electrons and nuclei, or to a contribution from discrete sources. A softer spectrum for the emission associated with molecular clouds may be physically related to the clouds themselves (i.e., cosmic-ray spectral variations) or to an associated discrete source distribution. New results on the temporal and spectral characteristics of the high-energy (50 MeV to 5 GeV) gammaray emission from the Vela pulsar are presented. The whole pulsed flux is found to exhibit long-term variability. Five discrete emission regions within the pulsar lightcurve have been identified, with the spectral characteristics and long-term behaviour being different. These characteristics differ significantly from those reported earlier for the Crab pulsar. However, geometrical pulsar models have been proposed (e.g., Morini, 1983; Smith, 1986) which could explain many of these features.
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