Heidelberg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 10: Astroparticles: Invited topical talks (joint session T/EP)

EP 10.2: Eingeladener Vortrag

Donnerstag, 24. März 2022, 14:25–14:50, T-H15

Energetic Pulsar Environments and the Origins of Galactic Cosmic Rays — •Alison Mitchell — Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, FAU, Erlangen, Germany

Cosmic Rays - and their origins - have fascinated Physicists for over a hundred years. Within our Milky Way Galaxy, particles are known to reach energies beyond the so-called Cosmic Ray *knee*, a spectral break at ~3 PeV in the all particle cosmic ray spectrum. However, evidence for the particle accelerators reach PeV energies - PeVatrons - has proven elusive. Only within the last five years have astrophysical sources of gamma-rays above 100 TeV been identified; gamma-rays produced through interactions of particles with PeV energies. Many of these sources are associated with known energetic pulsars.

In this talk, I will review the current census of PeVatrons and discuss implications for our understanding of pulsar environments. There are several open questions to grapple with: Which particle species are being accelerated - leptonic or hadronic? How are the particles transported through the surrounding medium? What is the maximum energy limit for particle acceleration in pulsar environments? In the near future, data from current and forthcoming facilities will help us to address these questions.