High Energy Cosmic Rays (eBook)

Dedication 5
Preface to the second edition 6
Preface to the first edition 7
Table of Contents 8
1 Overview 12
1.1 Where does the cosmic ray field belong? 12
1.2 Is progress in the cosmic ray field slow? 18
1.3 Main topics for future research 20
1.4 How this book is organized 22
Part I The Standard Model of Cosmic Rays 25
2 Cosmic ray interactions 26
2.1 Components and structure of matter 26
2.1.1 Strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions 28
2.1.2 Units of energy and interaction strength 28
2.2 Electromagnetic processes in matter 29
2.2.1 Coulomb scattering 29
2.2.2 Ionization loss 30
2.2.3 Cherenkov light 31
2.2.4 Compton scattering 32
2.2.5 Bremsstrahlung 33
2.2.6 Creation of electron–positron pairs 36
2.3 Electromagnetic collisions on magnetic and photon fields 37
2.3.1 Synchrotron radiation 37
2.3.2 Inverse Compton effect 39
2.4 Inelastic hadronic interactions below 1,000 GeV 40
2.4.1 Secondary particles spectra, average multiplicity and inelasticity 43
2.4.2 Kinematic variables and invariant cross-section 47
2.5 Nuclear fragmentation 48
3 The birth of cosmic rays 51
3.1 Stellar energetics. The pp chain 51
3.1.1 Solar neutrinos 53
3.1.2 Stellar evolution 59
3.1.3 Supernova explosions 62
3.1.4 Supernova neutrinos 63
3.1.5 Supernova remnants 67
3.2 Acceleration of cosmic rays 70
3.2.1 Stochastic acceleration of charged particles 70
3.2.2 Particle acceleration at astrophysical shocks 73
3.2.3 Acceleration with energy loss 78
4 Cosmic rays in the Galaxy 80
4.1 Interstellar matter and magnetic field 81
4.2 Basic principles of the propagation 85
4.2.1 Particle diffusion 86
4.3 Formation of the chemical composition 88
4.4 Diffuse galactic gamma rays 92
4.4.1 Relative importance of .-ray production processes 93
4.4.2 More exact .-ray yields 94
4.4.3 Energy spectrum of .-rays from the central Galaxy 95
5 Cosmic rays at the top of the atmosphere 98
5.1 Cosmic ray detectors 99
5.2 Solar modulation 103
5.3 Geomagnetic field effects 106
5.4 Cosmic ray spectra and composition 109
5.4.1 Energy spectra of different cosmic ray components 114
5.4.2 Electron spectrum 123
5.4.3 Antiprotons 126
6 Cosmic rays in the atmosphere 128
6.1 Atmospheric structure 129
6.2 Analytic approximations 131
6.2.1 Muons from meson decay 133
6.3 Muon fluxes in the atmosphere 135
6.3.1 Experimental results on atmospheric muons 136
7 Cosmic rays underground 144
7.1 High energy muons underground 145
7.2 Atmospheric neutrinos 153
7.2.1 Upward-going muons 158
7.2.2 Flux calculations 162
7.2.3 Experimental data 166
7.3 Neutrino oscillations 169
7.3.1 Matter effects 171
7.3.2 Oscillation parameters 172
Part II Contemporary Challenges 179
8 Cosmic ray showers 180
8.1 Electromagnetic cascades 181
8.1.1 Electromagnetic cascade theory 182
8.1.2 Monte Carlo calculations 186
8.2 Hadronic showers 190
8.2.1 Air shower detection 197
8.2.2 Reconstruction of the shower parameters from the observations 199
8.3 Extension of the hadronic interaction models 210
8.3.1 The minijet model 211
8.3.2 Monte Carlo realization of QCD models 213
8.3.3 Contemporary models used for the analysis of air shower data 216
8.4 Energy spectrum and composition at the knee 219
9 The end of the cosmic ray spectrum 227
9.1 Cosmic microwave background 228
9.2 UHECR interactions on the microwave background 229
9.2.1 Propagation of UHE protons in the Universe 233
9.2.2 Propagation of UHE nuclei 237
9.3 Experimental results and implications 239
9.3.1 Giant air shower detectors 239
9.3.2 Spectrum and composition of UHECR 243
9.3.3 Possible astrophysical sources of UHECR 249
9.3.4 Exotic models 253
9.4 UHECR astronomy 257
9.4.1 Arrival directions of UHECR 258
9.4.2 UHECR and the cosmic magnetic fields 262
9.5 Current status of the field 266
9.6 Future detectors 268
10 High energy neutrino and gamma-ray astronomy 272
10.1 The neutrino cross-section at very high energy 274
10.2 Gamma-ray telescopes 275
10.2.1 Satellite gamma-ray telescopes 275
10.2.2 Ground-based gamma-ray telescopes 276
10.3 Galactic gamma-ray and neutrino fluxes 279
10.3.1 Galactic binary systems – Cygnus X-3 tales 280
10.3.2 Supernova remnants 282
10.3.3 Observational constraints 283
10.4 Extragalactic sources 287
10.4.1 Observations of GeV and TeV gamma-rays from extragalactic sources 288
10.4.2 Models of gamma-ray production in AGN 290
10.4.3 Models of neutrino production in AGN 294
10.4.4 Neutrino production in GRB 296
10.4.5 Diffuse extragalactic neutrinos 297
10.4.6 Summary of the expected neutrino fluxes 298
10.5 Neutrinos and UHE cosmic rays 301
10.5.1 Neutrinos from propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays 303
10.6 Detection of high energy astrophysical neutrinos 306
10.6.1 Detection of neutrino-induced showers 307
10.6.2 Neutrino oscillations and neutrino telescopes 310
10.6.3 Neutrino telescopes 311
A Appendix 317
A.1 Physical constants 317
A.2 Astrophysical constants 318
A.3 Properties of particles discussed in the book 318
References 320
Index 331