Superbubbles and energetic particles in the Galaxy. I. Collective effects of particle acceleration

By É. Parizot, A. Marcowith, E. Swaluw, A. Bykov, V. Tatischeff. 2004

172 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Observations indicate that most massive stars in the Galaxy appear in groups, called OB associations, where their strong wind activity generates large structures known as superbubbles, inside which the subsequent supernovae (SNe) explode, with a tight space and time correlation. We investigate four main questions: 1) does the clustering of massive stars and SN explosions influence the particle acceleration process usually associated with SNe, and induce collective effects which would not manifest around isolated supernova remnants?; 2) does it make a difference for the general phenomenology of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs), notably for their energy spectrum and composition?; 3) Can this help alleviate some of the problems encountered within the standard GCR source model?; and 4) Is the link between superbubbles and energetic particles supported by observational data, and can it be further tested and constrained? We argue for a positive answer to all these questions. Theoretical, phenomenological and observational aspects are treated in separate papers. Here, we discuss the interaction of massive stellar winds and SN shocks inside superbubbles and indicate how this leads to specific acceleration effects. We also show that due to the high SN explosion rate and low diffusion coefficient, low-energy particles experience repeated shock acceleration inside superbubbles.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/871c12dfa226a7c0fcfccf73632de137cca88353

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. J. Vink
2. J. Hinton
3. W. Hofmann
4. A. Bykov
5. I. Grenier
6. F. Aharonian
7. J. Black
8. J. C. Raymond

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. J. Hinton
2. W. Hofmann
3. J. Vink
4. I. Grenier
5. J. Black
6. Catherine Boisson
7. A. Bykov
8. F. Aharonian

Citations in the corpus

• The Nine Lives of Cosmic Rays in Galaxies (2015, background): “Parizot et al. (2004) suggest that collective effects in superbubbles are important for CR acceleration to knee energies.”
• ENERGY SPECTRA OF COSMIC-RAY NUCLEI AT HIGH ENERGIES (2009, unknown): “The maximum energy attainable by a nucleus of charge Z may range from Z×1014 eV to ∼ Z×1017 eV depending on the model and types of supernovae considered (Lagage & Cesarsky 1983; Berezhko 1996; Parizot et al. 2004).”
• Observational Signatures of Particle Acceleration in Supernova Remnants (2012, background): “The propagation of supernova shocks inside the bubble create regions of enhanced turbulence where effective particle acceleration can take place (Bykov, 2001; Parizot et al., 2004; Higdon and Lingenfelter, 2005; Ferrand and Marcowith, 2010, , this aspect is further discussed in the next section).”
• The H.E.S.S. Survey of the Inner Galaxy in Very High Energy Gamma Rays (2005, background): “Particle acceleration tomulti-TeVenergiesmay also be powered byOB stellar associations, via the superbubblemechanism (for a summary see Parizot et al. 2004) and also possibly more directly via the stellar winds of member stars and subsequent interaction (see, e.g., Montmerle 1979; Völk & Forman…”
• The origin of galactic cosmic rays (2013, unknown): “These processes have been studied for instance by Bykov and Toptygin (2001) and Parizot et al. (2004), and the calculations seem to show a general trend to very hard spectra of accelerated particles.”