Related papers: Molecular Clouds as Cosmic Ray Laboratories
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…
The advent of high sensitivity, high resolution gamma-ray detectors, together with a knowledge of the distribution of the atomic hydrogen and especially of the molecular hydrogen in the Galaxy on sub-degree scales creates a unique…
Molecular clouds are expected to emit non-thermal radiation due to cosmic ray interactions in the dense magnetized gas. Such emission is amplified if a cloud is located close to an accelerator of cosmic rays and if energetic particles can…
This paper deals with the cosmic-ray penetration into molecular clouds and with the related gamma--ray emission. High energy cosmic rays interact with the dense gas and produce neutral pions which in turn decay into two gamma rays. This…
It is believed that the observed diffuse gamma ray emission from the galactic plane is the result of interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar gas. Such emission can be amplified if cosmic rays penetrate into dense molecular…
Molecular clouds are expected to emit non-thermal radiation due to cosmic ray interactions in the dense magnetized gas. Such emission is amplified if a cloud is located close to an accelerator of cosmic rays and if cosmic rays can leave the…
Gamma-ray emission from large structures is useful for tracing the propagation and distribution of cosmic rays throughout our Galaxy. For example, the search for gamma-ray emission from Giant Molecular Clouds may allow us to probe the flux…
The cosmic-ray flux in the Galaxy can be characterized by combining the knowledge of the distribution of gas in the Galaxy and the observation of gamma rays. We analyze the data from the HAWC Observatory to look for gamma rays in three…
Galactic cosmic rays are believed to be accelerated at supernova remnant shocks. Gamma-ray observations of both supernova remnants and associated molecular clouds have been used in several occasions to test (so far quite successfully) this…
The gamma-ray observations of molecular clouds associated with supernova remnants are considered one of the most promising ways to search for a solution of the problem of cosmic ray origin. Here we briefly review the status of the field,…
Energetic gamma rays (GeV to TeV photon energy) have been detected toward several supernova remnants (SNR) that are associated with molecular clouds. If the gamma rays are produced mainly by hadronic processes rather than leptonic processes…
New evidence that cosmic rays (hadronic component) are accelerated by supernova remnant shocks all the way from low energies to high energies, has come from recent works combining gamma-ray observations in the sub-GeV to TeV domain on the…
Cosmic Ray (CR) interactions with the dense gas inside Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) produce neutral pions, which in turn decay into gamma rays. Thus, the gamma ray emission from GMCs is a direct tracer of the cosmic ray density and the…
We analyze the processes governing cosmic-ray (CR) penetration into molecular clouds and the resulting generation of gamma-ray emission. The density of CRs inside a cloud is depleted at lower energies due to the self-excited MHD turbulence.…
The study of high-energy gamma rays from passive Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in our Galaxy is an indirect way to characterize and probe the paradigm of the "sea" of cosmic rays in distant parts of the Galaxy. By using data from the High…
The study of Galactic diffuse $\gamma$ radiation combined with the knowledge of the distribution of the molecular hydrogen in the Galaxy offers a unique tool to probe the cosmic ray flux in the Galaxy. A methodology to study the level of…
Diffuse emission in gamma-rays and neutrinos are produced by the interaction of cosmic rays with the interstellar medium. Below some hundreds of TeV, the sources of these cosmic rays are most likely Galactic. Hence, observations of…
A cluster of galaxies is a huge system bounded by gravitation, and cosmic rays are thought to be confined in the system, thus it should contain much non-thermal components. Many theories predict significant gamma-ray emission that could be…
The density of cosmic rays inside molecular clouds determines the ionization rate in the dense cores where stars form. It is also one of the drivers of astrochemistry leading to the creation of complex molecules. Through Fermi Large Area…
Molecular clouds act as primary targets for cosmic-ray interactions and are expected to shine in gamma-rays as a by-product of these interactions. Indeed several detected gamma-ray sources both in HE and VHE gamma-rays (HE: 100 MeV < E <…