期刊
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
卷 512, 期 -, 页码 -出版社
EDP SCIENCES S A
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200913474
关键词
acceleration of particles; cosmic rays; Magellanic Clouds; gamma rays: galaxies
资金
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Department of Energy in the United States
- Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules in France
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Italy
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
- High Energy Accelerator Research Organization
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Japan
- K. A. Wallenberg Foundation
- Swedish Research Council
- Swedish National Space Board in Sweden
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/G002487/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- ICREA Funding Source: Custom
- STFC [ST/G002487/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Context. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is to date the only normal external galaxy that has been detected in high-energy gamma rays. High-energy gamma rays trace particle acceleration processes and gamma-ray observations allow the nature and sites of acceleration to be studied. Aims. We characterise the distribution and sources of cosmic rays in the LMC from analysis of gamma-ray observations. Methods. We analyse 11 months of continuous sky-survey observations obtained with the Large Area Telescope aboard the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and compare it to tracers of the interstellar medium and models of the gamma-ray sources in the LMC. Results. The LMC is detected at 33 sigma significance. The integrated >100 MeV photon flux of the LMC amounts to (2.6 +/- 0.2) x 10(-7) ph cm(-2) s(-1) which corresponds to an energy flux of (1.6 +/- 0.1) x 10(-10) erg cm(-2) s(-1), with additional systematic uncertainties of less than or similar to 16%. The analysis reveals the massive star forming region 30 Doradus as a bright source of gamma-ray emission in the LMC in addition to fainter emission regions found in the northern part of the galaxy. The gamma-ray emission from the LMC shows very little correlation with gas density and is rather correlated to tracers of massive star forming regions. The close confinement of gamma-ray emission to star forming regions suggests a relatively short GeV cosmic-ray proton diffusion length. Conclusions. The close correlation between cosmic-ray density and massive star tracers supports the idea that cosmic rays are accelerated in massive star forming regions as a result of the large amounts of kinetic energy that are input by the stellar winds and supernova explosions of massive stars into the interstellar medium.
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