Producing cosmic gamma rays in starburst regions (Forwarded)

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee

March 19, 2007

Producing cosmic gamma rays in starburst regions

Mechanism explains how the most energetic form of light can be produced in
areas dominated by bright, young stars

By David F. Salisbury

In 2002, when astronomers first detected cosmic gamma rays -- the most
energetic form of light known -- coming from the constellation Cygnus they
were surprised and perplexed. The region lacked the extreme
electromagnetic fields that they thought were required to produce such
energetic rays. But now a team of theoretical physicists propose a
mechanism that can explain this mystery and may also help account for
another type of cosmic ray, the high-energy nuclei that rain down on Earth
in the billions.

The new mechanism is described in a Physical Review Letters paper
published online on March 20. The theoretical study was headed by Thomas
Weiler, professor of physics at Vanderbilt, working with Luis Anchordoqui
at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; John Beacom at Ohio State
University; Haim Goldberg at Northeastern University; and Sergio
Palomares-Ruiz at the University of Durham.

Existing methods for producing cosmic gamma rays require the ultra-strong
electromagnetic fields found only in some of the most extreme conditions
in the universe, such as stellar explosions and regions surrounding the
massive black holes found at the core of many galaxies. So they couldn't
explain how a "starburst" region in the Cygnus galaxy dominated by young,
hot, bright stars could produce such energetic rays. The newly proposed
mechanism, however, shows how two constituents present in such an area --
fast-moving nuclei found in stellar winds and ultraviolet light -- can
interact to produce cosmic gamma rays.

Cosmic rays provide an invisible but important link between the Earth and
the rest of the universe. They have a number of subtle effects on everyday
life. They cause chemical changes in soil and rock and trigger lightning
strikes, and some scientists have suggested that they may affect the
climate by influencing the process of cloud formation. The circuitry in
computer chips is now so small that individual cosmic rays can cause
non-reproducible computer errors, and cosmic rays increase the risk of
cancer among frequent airline passengers. There is also speculation that
waves of cosmic rays streaming down the spiral arms of the galaxy could
have contributed to past episodes of mass extinction on earth.

Since cosmic rays were discovered in 1912 in balloon experiments,
scientists have marveled at the tremendous amount of energy that they
carry and have speculated about their origins. Originally, about all
researchers knew about them were that they came from outer space. Today,
scientists know that cosmic rays consist of a variety of different
objects, including gamma rays, protons, electrons and the nuclei of a wide
variety of different elements. They also know more about where cosmic rays
come from. Most low-energy cosmic rays are produced by the sun. However,
high-energy cosmic rays come from distant parts of the universe.

Despite the years of study, cosmic rays have managed to keep a number of
secrets. For example, the most energetic proton-cosmic rays -- nicknamed
"Oh-my-God-particles" -- pack a punch equivalent to that of a fast-pitch
baseball. In the baseball, billions upon billions of nuclear particles
share this energy. These energetic cosmic rays demonstrate that there are
ways to pack the same amount of energy into a single particle, but,
despite their continuing efforts, scientists have not yet found an
acceptable mechanism for doing so.

Another outstanding question is the origin of the most energetic gamma
rays. They carry a trillion times more energy than photons in the visible
range, making them the most energetic form of light known. (Atomic
particles like protons and electrons gain and lose energy by speeding up
and slowing down. Light particles, called photons, always travel at the
same speed and gain energy by oscillating faster at shorter wavelengths
and lose energy by oscillating more slowly at longer wavelengths.)
Physicists measure the energy in photons in electron-volts (eV): the
amount of energy a single electron gains when it passes through a
potential difference of one volt. The energies of photons in visible light
range from 1.5 to 3.0 eV. Cosmic gamma rays contain tens of trillions of
electron volts. Such TeV gamma rays are relatively ra one falls on a
square kilometer of Earth's atmosphere every second on average. Virtually
all of them collide with air molecules and produce a cascade of energetic
particles in the upper atmosphere.

Scientists have come up with several mechanisms that can explain how
photons can gain so much energy. They do a good job of explaining how TeV
gamma rays can be created by the ultra-strong electrical and magnetic
fields that occur when stars explode and that are associated with the
super-massive black holes found in many galaxies.

One of the generally accepted mechanisms begins with electrons that have
been accelerated to extremely high energies. When such an electron runs
head on into a microwave photon, it can transfer much of its energy into
the photon by a process called Compton back scattering. In the process,
the microwave photon is transformed into a TeV gamma ray. A variation on
the theme involves the interaction of a fast-moving electron with an
extremely strong magnetic field. The magnetic field throws the electron
into a curve. If the curve is sharp enough, the electron will lose energy
by emitting high-energy gamma rays: a phenomenon called bremsstahlung.

The second mechanism involves collisions between highly accelerated
protons and a photon. In this case, the proton first absorbs the photon.
This makes the proton unstable, so it decays into a short-lived subatomic
particle called a pion, which, in turn, decays into a pair of cosmic gamma
rays.

"There is a region in Cygnus, called Cygnus OB2, where there have been
unexplained observations of TeV gamma rays: That is where we jumped in,"
says Weiler.

The new mechanism he and his colleagues have worked out uses the strong
ultraviolet light produced by young, hot, stars and the nuclei of iron and
silicon, which should be present in the stellar winds in starburst
regions. Both nuclei carry strong positive electric charges, so they can
be accelerated to extremely high velocities by moderate electromagnetic
fields. The scientists calculate that when one of these nuclei collides
with a photon of ultraviolet starlight, it will frequently disintegrate
into a nuclear fragment and some TeV gamma rays.

"Each of these three mechanisms -- electron versus proton versus nucleus
as accelerated beam -- has a characteristic signature in the gamma ray
spectrum. Our nuclear mechanism fits the observations from Cygnus OB2 much
better than the others," says Weiler.

The heavy nuclei required in this process are produced in supernovas and
there are no known exploded stars in the region. So the model assumes that
these nuclei, which are spread throughout space, are sometimes trapped by
starburst regions. "This is one of the weakest parts of our model, so I
don't want to push this aspect," says Weiler. However, if the model is
correct then these regions may be an important source of the nuclei
fraction of the cosmic rays that fall on Earth. The nuclei that produce
the cosmic gamma rays should stream out into the galaxy and some should
reach Earth eventually as cosmic rays. Unlike gamma rays, which can be
tracked back to their sources, the paths of electrically charged nuclei
are altered by the magnetic fields that they pass through so it is not
possible to determine their origins directly.

The effort was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the
National Aeronautics and Astronautics Administration, the Department of
Energy and a Vanderbilt University Discovery Award.

[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploratio...=284 &images=
]