Ordinary Stars as Potential TeV Cosmic-Ray Accelerators

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Hauptverfasser: Banik, Prabir, Bhadra, Arunava, Ghosh, Sanjay K.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Banik, Prabir
Bhadra, Arunava
Ghosh, Sanjay K.
author_facet Banik, Prabir
Bhadra, Arunava
Ghosh, Sanjay K.
contents Recent observations of cosmic rays increasingly point to the existence of nearby sources - so-called "local tevatrons", capable of accelerating particles to TeV energies. In this study, we examine the potential of a typical main-sequence star, represented by the Sun, to act as a source of TeV cosmic rays (CRs). We focus on identifying plausible mechanisms through which a quiescent star can accelerate charged particles to relativistic energies. We show that shock-drift acceleration processes operating within the chromospheres of the Sun and similar stars can accelerate particles to energies reaching the TeV scale. Additionally, we provide quantitative estimates of both the maximum achievable particle energies, spectral index of energy spectrum and the resulting cosmic-ray fluxes that such stellar environments could realistically produce. Our results indicate that ordinary stars could potentially contribute to the fine structure observed in the cosmic-ray spectrum at TeV energies and may help explain the local excess of TeV-scale electrons and positrons detected by H.E.S.S. and other observatories.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_17461
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ordinary Stars as Potential TeV Cosmic-Ray Accelerators
Banik, Prabir
Bhadra, Arunava
Ghosh, Sanjay K.
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Recent observations of cosmic rays increasingly point to the existence of nearby sources - so-called "local tevatrons", capable of accelerating particles to TeV energies. In this study, we examine the potential of a typical main-sequence star, represented by the Sun, to act as a source of TeV cosmic rays (CRs). We focus on identifying plausible mechanisms through which a quiescent star can accelerate charged particles to relativistic energies. We show that shock-drift acceleration processes operating within the chromospheres of the Sun and similar stars can accelerate particles to energies reaching the TeV scale. Additionally, we provide quantitative estimates of both the maximum achievable particle energies, spectral index of energy spectrum and the resulting cosmic-ray fluxes that such stellar environments could realistically produce. Our results indicate that ordinary stars could potentially contribute to the fine structure observed in the cosmic-ray spectrum at TeV energies and may help explain the local excess of TeV-scale electrons and positrons detected by H.E.S.S. and other observatories.
title Ordinary Stars as Potential TeV Cosmic-Ray Accelerators
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17461