English

Cosmic rays from thermal sources

Astrophysics 2011-11-28 v3 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Energy spectrum of cosmic rays (CR) exhibits power-like behavior with very characteristic "knee" structure. We consider a generalized statistical model for the production process of cosmic rays which accounts for such behavior in a natural way either by assuming existence of temperature fluctuations in the source of CR, or by assuming specific temperature distribution of CR sources. Both possibilities yield the so called Tsallis statistics and lead to the power-like distribution. We argue that the "knee" structure arises as result of abrupt change of fluctuations in the source of CR. Its possible origin is briefly discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.1609,
  title  = {Cosmic rays from thermal sources},
  author = {Z. Wlodarczyk and G. Wilk},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.1609},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

Enlarged version combining material presented by Z.Wlodarczyk at the XXX ICRC, 3-11 July 2007, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, and by G.Wilk at the VIth Int. Workshop "New Worlds in Astrop. Physics, 6-8 September 2007, Faro, Portugal; new material added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:06:50.315Z