Investigating the CREDIT history of supernova remnants as cosmic-ray sources

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Stall, Anton, Loo, Chun Khai, Mertsch, Philipp
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Stall, Anton
Loo, Chun Khai
Mertsch, Philipp
author_facet Stall, Anton
Loo, Chun Khai
Mertsch, Philipp
contents Supernova remnants (SNRs) have long been suspected to be the primary sources of Galactic cosmic rays. Over the past decades, great strides have been made in the modelling of particle acceleration, magnetic field amplification, and escape from SNRs. Yet while many SNRs have been observed in nonthermal emission in radio, X-rays, and gamma rays, there is no evidence for any individual object contributing to the locally observed flux. Here, we propose a particular spectral signature from individual remnants that is due to the energy-dependent escape from SNRs. For young and nearby sources, we predict fluxes enhanced by tens of percent in narrow rigidity intervals; given the percent-level flux uncertainties of contemporary cosmic-ray data, such features should be readily detectable. We model the spatial and temporal distribution of sources and the resulting distribution of fluxes with a Monte Carlo approach. The decision tree that we have trained on simulated data is able to discriminate with very high significance between the null hypothesis of a smooth distribution of sources and the scenario with a stochastic distribution of individual sources. We suggest that this cosmic-ray energy-dependent injection time (CREDIT) scenario be considered in experimental searches to identify individual SNRs as cosmic-ray sources.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_07088
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Investigating the CREDIT history of supernova remnants as cosmic-ray sources
Stall, Anton
Loo, Chun Khai
Mertsch, Philipp
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Supernova remnants (SNRs) have long been suspected to be the primary sources of Galactic cosmic rays. Over the past decades, great strides have been made in the modelling of particle acceleration, magnetic field amplification, and escape from SNRs. Yet while many SNRs have been observed in nonthermal emission in radio, X-rays, and gamma rays, there is no evidence for any individual object contributing to the locally observed flux. Here, we propose a particular spectral signature from individual remnants that is due to the energy-dependent escape from SNRs. For young and nearby sources, we predict fluxes enhanced by tens of percent in narrow rigidity intervals; given the percent-level flux uncertainties of contemporary cosmic-ray data, such features should be readily detectable. We model the spatial and temporal distribution of sources and the resulting distribution of fluxes with a Monte Carlo approach. The decision tree that we have trained on simulated data is able to discriminate with very high significance between the null hypothesis of a smooth distribution of sources and the scenario with a stochastic distribution of individual sources. We suggest that this cosmic-ray energy-dependent injection time (CREDIT) scenario be considered in experimental searches to identify individual SNRs as cosmic-ray sources.
title Investigating the CREDIT history of supernova remnants as cosmic-ray sources
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07088