scholarly journals Photohadronic Processes in Astrophysical Environments

1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Mücke ◽  
J. P. Rachen ◽  
Ralph Engel ◽  
R. J. Protheroe ◽  
Todor Stanev

AbstractWe discuss the first applications of our newly developed Monte Carlo event generator SOPHIA to multiparticle photoproduction of relativistic protons with thermal and power-law radiation fields. The measured total cross section is reproduced in terms of excitation and decay of baryon resonances, direct pion production, diffractive scattering, and non-diffractive multiparticle production. Non-diffractive multiparticle production is described using a string fragmentation model. We demonstrate that the widely used ‘Δ-approximation’ for the photoproduction cross section is reasonable only for a restricted set of astrophysical applications. The relevance of this result for cosmic ray propagation through the microwave background and hadronic models of active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts is briefly discussed.

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (22) ◽  
pp. 4065-4083 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS J. WEILER

Neutrinos offer a particularly promising eye on the extreme Universe. Neutrinos are not attenuated by intervening radiation fields such as the Cosmic Microwave Background, and so they are messengers from the very distant and very young phase of the universe. Also, neutrinos are not deflected by cosmic magnetic fields, and so they should point to their sources. In addition, there are particle physics aspects of neutrinos which can be tested only with cosmic neutrino beams. After a brief overview of highest-energy cosmic ray data, and the present and proposed experiments which will perform neutrino astronomy, we discuss two particle physics aspects of neutrinos. They are possible long-lifetime decay of the neutrino, and a measurement of the neutrino-nucleon cross-section at a CMS energy orders of magnitude beyond what can be achieved with terrestrial accelerators. Measurement of an anomalously large neutrino cross-section would indicate new physics (e.g. low string-scale, extra dimensions, precocious unification), while a smaller than expected cross-section would reveal an aspect of QCD evolution. We then discuss aspects of neutrino-primary models for the extreme-energy (EE) cosmic ray data. Primary neutrinos in extant data are motivated by the directional clustering at EE reported by the AGASA experiment. We discuss the impact of the strongly-interacting neutrino hypothesis on lower-energy physics via dispersion relations, the statistical significance of AGASA directional clustering, and the possible relevance of the Z-burst mechanism for existing EE cosmic ray data.


2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (09) ◽  
pp. 1401-1409
Author(s):  
ANDREW M. TAYLOR

Ongoing experimental efforts to detect cosmic sources of high energy neutrinos are guided by the expectation that astrophysical accelerators of cosmic ray protons also generate high energy neutrinos through their interactions with ambient matter and/or photons. However the predicted neutrino flux is reduced if cosmic ray sources accelerate not only protons but also a significant number of heavier nuclei, as is indicated by recent air shower data. I consider two plausible extragalactic class of sources, active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts, and demand consistency with the observed cosmic ray composition and energy spectrum at Earth after allowing for propagation through intergalactic radiation fields. This allows me to calculate the degree of photo-disintegration and pion production expected to occur in these sources, and hence the neutrino fluxes from them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950349 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ajaz ◽  
R. Khan ◽  
Y. Ali ◽  
M. K. Suleymanov

We simulate proton–proton collisions to calculate the energy flow with four different classes of events: hard scattering, diffractive and non-diffractive enriched interactions and inclusive minimum bias. We use cosmic ray Monte Carlo event generator to determine the energy flow for the above-mentioned classes in pseudorapidity range 1.9[Formula: see text] 4.9 at [Formula: see text] = 7 TeV in pp collisions. A comparison of model predictions to the LHCb data, obtained with the same pseudorapidity and center-of-mass energy, is presented and discussed. While predictions of the models are compatible with the experimental measurements, none of them is able to completely reproduce all the results.


1992 ◽  
Vol 07 (16) ◽  
pp. 3665-3690
Author(s):  
MOHAMMAD SALEEM ◽  
MUHAMMAD RAFIQUE

An account of the inclusive production of K mesons in electron-positron annihilation is given. The most recent measurements on the cross section are exhibited and compared with the predictions of the Lund model. The model gives a satisfactory agreement with the experimental data. The results from different experiments on cross section, the mean multiplicity per multihadronic event and various other characteristics are found to be consistent.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Man Ho Chan

Recently, it has been shown that the annihilation of 30–40 GeV dark matter particles through bb- channel can satisfactorily explain the excess GeV gamma-ray spectrum near the Galactic Center. In this paper, we apply the above model to galaxy clusters and use the latest upper limits of gamma-ray flux derived from Fermi-LAT data to obtain an upper bound of the annihilation cross section of dark matter. By considering the extended density profiles and the cosmic ray profile models of 49 galaxy clusters, the upper bound of the annihilation cross section can be further tightened to σv≤9×10-26 cm3 s−1. This result is consistent with the one obtained from the data near the Galactic Center.


Universe ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Luigi Tibaldo ◽  
Daniele Gaggero ◽  
Pierrick Martin

Continuum gamma-ray emission produced by interactions of cosmic rays with interstellar matter and radiation fields is a probe of non-thermal particle populations in galaxies. After decades of continuous improvements in experimental techniques and an ever-increasing sky and energy coverage, gamma-ray observations reveal in unprecedented detail the properties of galactic cosmic rays. A variety of scales and environments are now accessible to us, from the local interstellar medium near the Sun and the vicinity of cosmic-ray accelerators, out to the Milky Way at large and beyond, with a growing number of gamma-ray emitting star-forming galaxies. Gamma-ray observations have been pushing forward our understanding of the life cycle of cosmic rays in galaxies and, combined with advances in related domains, they have been challenging standard assumptions in the field and have spurred new developments in modelling approaches and data analysis methods. We provide a review of the status of the subject and discuss perspectives on future progress.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Hernández-Arellano ◽  
M. Napsuciale ◽  
S. Rodríguez

Abstract In this work we study the possibility that the gamma ray excess (GRE) at the Milky Way galactic center come from the annihilation of dark matter with a (1, 0) ⊕ (0, 1) space-time structure (spin-one dark matter, SODM). We calculate the production of prompt photons from initial state radiation, internal bremsstrahlung, final state radiation including the emission from the decay products of the μ, τ or hadronization of quarks. Next we study the delayed photon emission from the inverse Compton scattering (ICS) of electrons (produced directly or in the prompt decay of μ, τ leptons or in the hadronization of quarks produced in the annihilation of SODM) with the cosmic microwave background or starlight. All these mechanisms yield significant contributions only for Higgs resonant exchange, i.e. for M ≈ MH /2, and the results depend on the Higgs scalar coupling to SODM, gs. The dominant mechanism at the GRE bump is the prompt photon production in the hadronization of b quarks produced in $$ \overline{D}D\to \overline{b}b $$ D ¯ D → b ¯ b , whereas the delayed photon emission from the ICS of electrons coming from the hadronization of b quarks produced in the same reaction dominates at low energies (ω < 0.3 GeV ) and prompt photons from c and τ , as well as from internal bremsstrahlung, yield competitive contributions at the end point of the spectrum (ω ≥ 30 GeV ). Taking into account all these contributions, our results for photons produced in the annihilation of SODM are in good agreement with the GRE data for gs ∈ [0.98, 1.01] × 10−3 and M ∈ [62.470, 62.505] GeV . We study the consistency of the corresponding results for the dark matter relic density, the spin-independent dark matter-nucleon cross-section σp and the cross section for the annihilation of dark matter into $$ \overline{b}b $$ b ¯ b , τ+τ−, μ+μ− and γγ, taking into account the Higgs resonance effects, finding consistent results in all cases.


Author(s):  
Maria Concetta Maccarone ◽  
Giovanni La Rosa ◽  
Osvaldo Catalano ◽  
Salvo Giarrusso ◽  
Alberto Segreto ◽  
...  

AbstractUVscope is an instrument, based on a multi-pixel photon detector, developed to support experimental activities for high-energy astrophysics and cosmic ray research. The instrument, working in single photon counting mode, is designed to directly measure light flux in the wavelengths range 300-650 nm. The instrument can be used in a wide field of applications where the knowledge of the nocturnal environmental luminosity is required. Currently, one UVscope instrument is allocated onto the external structure of the ASTRI-Horn Cherenkov telescope devoted to the gamma-ray astronomy at very high energies. Being co-aligned with the ASTRI-Horn camera axis, UVscope can measure the diffuse emission of the night sky background simultaneously with the ASTRI-Horn camera, without any interference with the main telescope data taking procedures. UVscope is properly calibrated and it is used as an independent reference instrument for test and diagnostic of the novel ASTRI-Horn telescope.


2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (4) ◽  
pp. 5583-5588
Author(s):  
Man Ho Chan ◽  
Chak Man Lee

ABSTRACT In the past decade, various instruments, such as the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and the Dark Matter Particle Explorer(DAMPE), have been used to detect the signals of annihilating dark matter in our Galaxy. Although some excesses of gamma rays, antiprotons and electrons/positrons have been reported and are claimed to be dark matter signals, the uncertainties of the contributions of Galactic pulsars are still too large to confirm the claims. In this paper, we report on a possible radio signal of annihilating dark matter manifested in the archival radio continuum spectral data of the Abell 4038 cluster. By assuming a thermal annihilation cross-section and comparing the dark matter annihilation model with the null hypothesis (cosmic ray emission without dark matter annihilation), we obtain very large test statistic (TS) values, TS &gt; 45, for four popular annihilation channels, which correspond to more than 6σ statistical preference. This reveals a possible potential signal of annihilating dark matter. In particular, our results are also consistent with the recent claims of dark matter mass, m ≈ 30–50 GeV, annihilating via the $\rm b\bar{b}$ quark channel with the thermal annihilation cross-section. However, at this time, we cannot exclude the possibility that a better background cosmic ray model could explain the spectral data without recourse to dark matter annihilations.


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