I co-author a paper that examines the influence of using a three-dimensional map of Galactic gas on the propagation and resulting distribution of cosmic rays (that are highly energetic charged particles travelling through our Galaxy). These results are a product of our GaGaDiCT-collaboration.
Title: The influence of the 3D Galactic gas structure on cosmic-ray transport and γ-ray emission
Abstract:
Context: Cosmic rays (CRs) play a major role in the dynamics of the interstellar medium (ISM). Their interactions and transport ionize, heat, and push the ISM thereby coupling different regions of it. The spatial distribution of CRs depends on the distribution of their sources as well as the ISM constituents they interact with, such as gas, starlight, and magnetic fields. Particularly, gas interacts closely with CRs, influencing CR fluxes and γ-ray emission.
Aims: We illustrate the influence of 3D gas structures on CR transport and γ-ray emission.
Methods: We use the PICARD code and multiple samples of recent 3D reconstructions of the HI and H2 Galactic gas constituents to investigate the impact on the transport of CRs and emission of γ-rays.
Results: We find the necessary transport parameters to reproduce local measurements of CR fluxes, and see that they depend on the local distribution of gas density and structure. The distribution of CR fluxes exhibits energy-dependent structures that vary for all CR species due to their corresponding loss processes. Regions of enhanced secondary (primary) species are spatially correlated (anti-correlated) with the gas density. We observe a high sensitivity of the γ-ray emission on the contrast of gas structures, as those determine the 3D spatial distributions of hadronic interactions and bremsstrahlung. We find that corresponding gas-induced structures in the distribution of CR electrons are also visible in Inverse Compton (IC) emission. Due to the aforementioned sensitivity, the analysis of CR data for CR sources and transport parameters requires the usage of accurate 3D gas maps.
Authors: Andrés Ramírez, Gordian Edenhofer, Torsten A. Enßlin, Philipp Frank, Philipp Mertsch, Vo Hong Minh Phan, Laurin Söding, Hanieh Zhandinejad, and Ralf Kissmann
Link to arXiv: arXiv:2407.02410
Link to publisher: Following acceptance