Fluxes of cosmic rays: A delicately balanced stationary state
Abstract
The analysis of cosmic rays fluxes as a function of energy reveals a {\it knee} slightly below eV and an {\it ankle} close to eV. Their physical origins remain up to now quite enigmatic; in particular, no elementary process is known which occurs at energies close to eV. We propose a phenomenological approach along the lines of nonextensive statistical mechanics, a formalism which contains Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics as a particular case. The knee then appears as a crossover between two fractal-like thermal regimes, the crossover being caused by process occurring at energies ten million times lower than that of the knee, in the region of the quark hadron transition ( eV). This opens the door to an unexpected standpoint for further clarifying the phenomenon.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0203258,
title = {Fluxes of cosmic rays: A delicately balanced stationary state},
author = {Constantino Tsallis and Joao C. Anjos and Ernesto P. Borges},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0203258},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
RevTeX, 10 pages including 1 eps figure