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A study on the sharp knee and fine structures of cosmic ray spectra

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Abstract

The paper investigates the overall and detailed features of cosmic ray (CR) spectra in the knee region using the scenario of nuclei-photon interactions around the acceleration sources. Young supernova remnants can be the physical realities of such kind of CR acceleration sites. The results show that the model can well explain the following problems simultaneously with one set of source parameters: the knee of CR spectra and the sharpness of the knee, the detailed irregular structures of CR spectra, the so-called “component B” of Galactic CRs, and the electron/positron excesses reported by recent observations. The coherent explanation serves as evidence that at least a portion of CRs might be accelerated at the sources similar to young supernova remnants, and one set of source parameters indicates that this portion mainly comes from standard sources or from a single source.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Bo Wang, Qiang Yuan, Chao Fan, JianLi Zhang, HongBo Hu & XiaoJun Bi

  2. Department of Physics, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China

    Chao Fan

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  1. Bo Wang
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  2. Qiang Yuan
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  3. Chao Fan
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  4. JianLi Zhang
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Correspondence to Bo Wang.

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Wang, B., Yuan, Q., Fan, C. et al. A study on the sharp knee and fine structures of cosmic ray spectra. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 53, 842–847 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-010-0194-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-010-0194-y

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