ON THE e+e–EXCESSES AND THE KNEE OF THE COSMIC RAY SPECTRA—HINTS OF COSMIC RAY ACCELERATION IN YOUNG SUPERNOVA REMNANTS

Hong-Bo Hu, Qiang Yuan, Bo Wang, Chao Fan, Jian-Li Zhang, Xiao-Jun Bi
2009 Astrophysical Journal  
Supernova remnants have long been regarded as sources of the Galactic cosmic rays up to petaelectronvolts, but convincing evidence is still lacking. In this work we explore the common origin of the subtle features of the cosmic ray spectra, such as the knee of cosmic ray spectra and the excesses of electron/positron fluxes recently observed by ATIC, H.E.S.S., Fermi-LAT and PAMELA. Numerical calculation shows that those features of cosmic ray spectra can be well reproduced in a scenario with
more » ... ^- pair production by interactions between high energy cosmic rays and background photons in an environment similar to the young supernova remnant. The success of such a coherent explanation serves in turn as an evidence that at least a portion of cosmic rays might be accelerated at young supernova remnants.
doi:10.1088/0004-637x/700/2/l170 fatcat:x5mxqpihcbcl3bpux5rhdgirxa