期刊
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
卷 755, 期 1, 页码 -出版社
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/755/1/22
关键词
cosmic rays; gamma rays: ISM
资金
- European Community [ERC-StG-259391]
- 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 (KEK)
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Japan
- K. A. Wallenberg Foundation
- Swedish Research Council
- Swedish National Space Board in Sweden
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy
- Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales in France
- NASA [NNX09AC15G]
- Max Planck Society
- ICREA Funding Source: Custom
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [22740119, 10J08529] Funding Source: KAKEN
We report an analysis of the interstellar gamma-ray emission from the Chamaeleon, R Coronae Australis (R CrA), and Cepheus and Polaris flare regions with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. They are among the nearest molecular cloud complexes, within similar to 300 pc from the solar system. The gamma-ray emission produced by interactions of cosmic rays (CRs) and interstellar gas in those molecular clouds is useful to study the CR densities and distributions of molecular gas close to the solar system. The obtained gamma-ray emissivities above 250 MeV are (5.9 +/- 0.1(stat-1.0sys)(+0.9)) x 10(-27) photons s(-1) sr(-1) H-atom(-1), (10.2 +/- 0.4(stat-1.7sys)(+1.2)) x 10(-27) photons s(-1) sr(-1) H-atom(-1), and (9.1 +/- 0.3(stat-0.6sys)(+1.5)) x 10(-27) photons s(-1) sr(-1) H-atom(-1) for the Chamaeleon, R CrA, and Cepheus and Polaris flare regions, respectively. Whereas the energy dependences of the emissivities agree well with that predicted from direct CR observations at the Earth, the measured emissivities from 250 MeV to 10 GeV indicate a variation of the CR density by similar to 20% in the neighborhood of the solar system, even if we consider systematic uncertainties. The molecular mass calibrating ratio, X-CO = N(H-2)/W-CO, is found to be (0.96 +/- 0.06(stat-0.12sys)(+0.15)) x 10(20) H-2-molecule cm(-2) (K km s(-1))(-1), (0.99 +/- 0.08(stat-0.10sys)(+0.18)) x 10(20) H-2-molecule cm(-2) (K km s(-1))(-1), and (0.63 +/- 0.02(stat-0.07sys)(+0.09)) x 10(20) H-2-molecule cm(-2) (K km s(-1))(-1) for the Chamaeleon, R CrA, and Cepheus and Polaris flare regions, respectively, suggesting a variation of X-CO in the vicinity of the solar system. From the obtained values of X-CO, the masses of molecular gas traced by W-CO in the Chamaeleon, R CrA, and Cepheus and Polaris flare regions are estimated to be similar to 5 x 10(3)M(circle dot), similar to 10(3)M(circle dot), and similar to 3.3 x 10(4)M(circle dot), respectively. A comparable amount of gas not traced well by standard Hi and CO surveys is found in the regions investigated.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据