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Space Science Reviews

, Volume 99, Issue 1–4, pp 85–94 | Cite as

The Energy Spectra and Anisotropies of Cosmic Rays

  • S.P. Swordy
Article

Abstract

The existing paradigm of the origin of Galactic cosmic rays places strong supernovae shocks as the acceleration site for this material. However, although the EGRET gamma-ray telescope has reported evidence for GeV gamma rays from some supernovae, it is still unclear if the signal is produced by locally intense cosmic rays. Although non-thermal X-ray emissions have been detected from supernova remnants and interpreted as synchrotron emission from locally intense electrons at energies up to ∼100 TeV, the inferred source energy spectral slopes seem much steeper than the electron source spectrum observed through direct measurements. It remains the case that simple energetics provide the most convincing argument that supernovae power the bulk of cosmic rays. Two characteristics which can be used to investigate this issue at high energy are the source energy spectra and the source composition derived from direct measurements.

Keywords

Energy Spectrum Electron Source Supernova Remnant Source Spectrum Spectral Slope 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001

Authors and Affiliations

  • S.P. Swordy
    • 1
  1. 1.Enrico Fermi Institute and Department of PhysicsUniversity of ChicagoU.S.A

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