The Propagation of Cosmic Rays from the Galactic Wind Termination Shock: Back to the Galaxy?

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 859; no. 1; pp. 63 - 78
• Main Authors: Merten, Lukas, Bustard, Chad, Zweibel, Ellen G., Tjus, Julia Becker
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 20.05.2018; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Advection; Astrophysics; Back propagation; Computer simulation; convection; Cosmic ray propagation; Cosmic rays; Differential equations; diffusion; Energy budget; Fluxes; Galactic evolution; Galactic winds; Galaxies; Galaxy: halo; Knee; Milky Way; Neutrinos; Parameters; Questions; shock waves; Stars & galaxies; Transport equations; Wind
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aabfdd

Although several theories exist for the origin of cosmic rays (CRs) in the region between the spectral "knee" and "ankle," this problem is still unsolved. A variety of observations suggest that the transition from Galactic to extragalactic sources occurs in this energy range. In this work, we examine whether a Galactic wind that eventually forms a termination shock far outside the Galactic plane can contribute as a possible source to the observed flux in the region of interest. Previous work by Bustard et al. estimated that particles can be accelerated to energies above the "knee" up to Rmax = 1016 eV for parameters drawn from a model of a Milky Way wind. A remaining question is whether the accelerated CRs can propagate back into the Galaxy. To answer this crucial question, we simulate the propagation of the CRs using the low-energy extension of the CRPropa framework, based on the solution of the transport equation via stochastic differential equations. The setup includes all relevant processes, including three-dimensional anisotropic spatial diffusion, advection, and corresponding adiabatic cooling. We find that, assuming realistic parameters for the shock evolution, a possible Galactic termination shock can contribute significantly to the energy budget in the "knee" region and above. We estimate the resulting produced neutrino fluxes and find them to be below measurements from IceCube and limits by KM3NeT.