Pulsars and the origin of cosmic rays |
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| Authors: | T N Rengarajan |
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| Institution: | 1. Cosmic Ray Group, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, India
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| Abstract: | The capabilities and limitations of pulsars as sources of cosmic rays are reviewed in the light of experimental observations. Pulsars can supply the cosmic ray power if they have rotational velocities in excess of 700 rad s?1 at birth. Though this is theoretically possible, there is no experimental proof for the same. Pulsars can accelerate particles to the highest energies of 1020 eV, but in general, the spectra on simple considerations, turn out to be flatter than the observed cosmic ray spectrum. At the highest energies, absorption processes due to fragmentation and photodisintegration dominate for heavy nuclei. The existence of a steady flux of cosmic rays of energy greater than 1017 eV demands acceleration of particles to last over fifty years, the time interval between supernovae outbursts, whereas the expected period of activity is less than a few years. Finally, the problem of anisotropy with relevance to pulsars as sources and the possibility of observing pulsar accelerated particles from galactic clusters is considered. |
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