Würzburg 2018 – scientific programme
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 78: Kosmische Strahlung IV
T 78.9: Talk
Thursday, March 22, 2018, 18:30–18:45, Philo-HS6
Cosmic rays from the Galactic termination shock — •Lukas Merten1,2, Chad Bustard3, Ellen Zweibel3,4, and Julia Becker Tjus1,2 — 1Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Theoretische Physik IV, Bochum, Germany — 2Ruhr Astroparticle and Plasmaphysics Center — 3Physics Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 — 4Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706
Although several theories for the origin of cosmic rays in the region between the spectral "knee" and "ankle" exist, this problem is still unsolved. A variety of observations suggest that the transition from Galactic to extragalactic sources occurs in this energy range.
In this work we examine if a Galactic wind outflow which eventually forms a termination shock far outside the Galactic plane can contribute as a possible source to the observed flux in the region of interest. In previous work by Bustard et al. was shown that particles can be accelerated up to energies above the "knee" up to Rmax=1016 V. The remaining questions is if the accelerated cosmic rays can propagate back into the Galaxy.
To answer this crucial question, we simulated the propagation of the cosmic rays using the CRPropa framework. The setup included all relevant processes, like three-dimensional anisotropic spatial diffusion, advection and corresponding adiabatic cooling. We find that, assuming realistic parameters for the shock evolution, a possible Galactic termination shock can contribute significantly to the energy budget in the knee region and above.