A connection between star formation activity and cosmic rays in the starburst galaxy M 82
宇宙学与河外天体物理
2009-11-05 v1
摘要
尽管银河系宇宙线(质子和原子核)被广泛认为主要由大质量恒星的风和超新星加速，但这一起源的确凿证据在发现近一个世纪后仍然难以捉摸[1]。星暴星系的活跃区域具有异常高的恒星形成率，其巨大尺寸(超过类似银河系区域直径的50倍)使其能够独特地对其潜在的高宇宙线密度进行可靠的量热测量[2]。在其大质量恒星的形成、生存和死亡过程中产生的宇宙线，预计最终会通过与星际气体和辐射的相互作用产生弥散伽马射线发射。M 82，作为典型的小型星暴星系，被预测为伽马射线波段最亮的星暴星系[3, 4]。我们在此报告探测到来自M 82的>700 GeV伽马射线。根据这些数据，我们确定M 82星暴核心的宇宙线密度为250 eV cm^{-3}，约为银河系平均密度的500倍。这一结果有力地支持了宇宙线加速与恒星形成活动相关，并且超新星和大质量恒星风是主要的加速器。
引用
@article{arxiv.0911.0873,
title = {A connection between star formation activity and cosmic rays in the starburst galaxy M 82},
author = {V. A. Acciari and E. Aliu and T. Arlen and T. Aune and M. Bautista and M. Beilicke and W. Benbow and D. Boltuch and S. M. Bradbury and J. H. Buckley and V. Bugaev and K. Byrum and A. Cannon and O. Celik and A. Cesarini and Y. C. Chow and L. Ciupik and P. Cogan and P. Colin and W. Cui and R. Dickherber and C. Duke and S. J. Fegan and J. P. Finley and G. Finnegan and P. Fortin and L. Fortson and A. Furniss and N. Galante and D. Gall and K. Gibbs and G. H. Gillanders and S. Godambe and J. Grube and R. Guenette and G. Gyuk and D. Hanna and J. Holder and D. Horan and C. M. Hui and T. B. Humensky and A. Imran and P. Kaaret and N. Karlsson and M. Kertzman and D. Kieda and J. Kildea and A. Konopelko and H. Krawczynski and F. Krennrich and M. J. Lang and S. LeBohec and G. Maier and S. McArthur and A. McCann and M. McCutcheon and J. Millis and P. Moriarty and R. Mukherjee and T. Nagai and R. A. Ong and A. N. Otte and D. Pandel and J. S. Perkins and F. Pizlo and M. Pohl and J. Quinn and K. Ragan and L. C. Reyes and P. T. Reynolds and E. Roache and H. J. Rose and M. Schroedter and G. H. Sembroski and A. W. Smith and D. Steele and S. P. Swordy and M. Theiling and S. Thibadeau and A. Varlotta and V. V. Vassiliev and S. Vincent and R. G. Wagner and S. P. Wakely and J. E. Ward and T. C. Weekes and A. Weinstein and T. Weisgarber and D. A. Williams and S. Wissel and M. Wood and B. Zitzer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0911.0873},
year = {2009}
}
备注
18 pages, 4 figures; published in Nature; Version is prior to Nature's in-house style editing (differences are minimal)