Thursday, January 5, 2012

1201.0369 (Massimo Persic et al.)

Measures of cosmic-ray energy densities in galaxies    [PDF]

Massimo Persic, Yoel Rephaeli
The energy density of cosmic-ray protons (CRp) in star-forming galaxies can be estimated from (i) neutral-pion--decay gamma-ray emission, (ii) synchrotron radio emission, and (iii) supernova rates. For most of the galaxies for which values of all these quantities are known, the three methods yield consistent CRp energy density estimates, ranging from O(0.1) eV/cm3 in galaxies with low star-formation rates, to O(100) eV/cm3 in galaxies with high star-formation rates. The only cases for which the methods do not agree are the composite starburst/Seyfert2 galaxy NGC1068, whose gamma-ray emission originates in black-hole accretion rather than star formation, and the Small Magellanic Cloud, where the discrepancy between measured and estimated CRp energy density may be due to a small CR confinement volume.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.0369

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