How to use molecular clouds to study the propagation of cosmic rays in the Galaxy
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2017-08-23 v1
Abstract
Observations of molecular clouds in the gamma ray domain provide us with a tool to study the distribution of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. This is because cosmic rays can penetrate molecular clouds, undergo hadronic interactions in the dense gas, and produce neutral pions that in turn decay into gamma rays. The detection of this radiation allows us to estimate the spectrum and intensity of cosmic rays at the cloud's position. Remarkably, this fact can be used to constrain the cosmic ray diffusion coefficient at specific locations in the Galaxy.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1011.2029,
title = {How to use molecular clouds to study the propagation of cosmic rays in the Galaxy},
author = {Stefano Gabici},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1011.2029},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
Invited talk, to appear on the proceedings of ICATPP Conference on Cosmic Rays for Particle and Astroparticle Physics, Villa Olmo, Como 7-8 October 2010