Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2012
Volume 57, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, March 31–April 3 2012; Atlanta, Georgia
Session G3: Invited Session: Toward Understanding the Origins of Galactic Cosmic Rays |
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Sponsoring Units: DAP Chair: Martin Israel, Washington University in St. Louis Room: Hanover CDE |
Sunday, April 1, 2012 8:30AM - 9:06AM |
G3.00001: Precision Measurements of the Cosmic-Ray Composition Invited Speaker: Mirko Boezio Several experiments: AMS, ATIC, CREAM, PAMELA, etc., equipped with state-of-the art detectors, have recently presented or are going to present new results on the composition of the charged cosmic radiation with a significant improvement in statistics and systematics respect to existing data. From the energy spectra of antiparticles to the chemical composition and energy spectra of nuclei, these measurements have opened a new era of precision studies in cosmic rays that challenge our current understanding of cosmic-ray sources and acceleration and propagation mechanisms in the Galaxy. In this talk we will review these experiments and present their most recent scientific results. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 1, 2012 9:06AM - 9:42AM |
G3.00002: Gamma-ray observations of Cosmic ray accelerators Invited Speaker: Stefan Funk The past decade has brought significant advances in our understanding of acceleration processes at work in shell-type as well as in plerionic Supernova remnants through observations from X-rays to VHE Gamma-rays. Unprecedented morphological studies of gamma-ray emission from shell-type Supernova remnants show a striking correlation to X ray emission. Gamma-ray energy spectra of up to 100$\sim $TeV confirm particle acceleration close to the ``knee'' in the Cosmic ray spectrum at 1$\sim $PeV in these objects. The Fermi-LAT is contributing to our understanding of these objects through observations in range between 20 MeV and 300 GeV. All these observations allow for the first time to severely constrain gamma-ray emission models and allow for studies of the parent population accelerated in these objects. I will review the current observational status of gamma-ray emission and our understanding of the origin of cosmic rays. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 1, 2012 9:42AM - 10:18AM |
G3.00003: The origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays: theory confronts observations Invited Speaker: Elena Amato This year, the world celebrates the centennial of the discovery of Cosmic Radiation by the austrian-american physicist Victor Hess. With his balloon flights, Hess provided an answer to a major mystery of the times, proving that the anomalous radiation measured by electroscopes came from the sky rather than from some unknown radioactive source on Earth. This Nobel Prize worth discovery, quickly followed up by the finding that the cosmic radiation consisted of highly energetic particles, started the quest for the astrophysical sources of cosmic rays and for the physical processes behind their acceleration. Cosmic ray physics has been a very active field of research, attracting the attention of some of the most brilliant minds of the century. While the measured cosmic ray spectrum extends up to energies exceeding a billion TeV (namely a billion times the energy of collisions at LHC) this talk will focus on particles up to PeV energies. These are thought to be of Galactic origin and a long standing paradigm assumes them to be accelerated in Supernova Remnants by the process of ``Diffusive Shock Acceleration.'' This paradigm has been eluding definite proof for many decades and only recently the combination of theoretical and experimental progress has become such as to finally prove or disprove it. I will review recent theoretical progress on the subject of particle acceleration at Supernova Remnant shocks and of cosmic ray propagation in the Galaxy. I will then discuss how theory compares with observations and the current challenges to existing paradigms on the origin and propagation of Galactic Cosmic Rays. [Preview Abstract] |
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