Supernova origin of cosmic rays from a gamma-ray signal in the Constellation III region of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

Cosmic rays could be produced via shock acceleration powered by supernovae. The supernova hypothesis implies that each supernova injects on average some 1e50 erg in cosmic rays, while the shock acceleration model predicts a powerlaw cosmic ray spectrum with the slope close to 2. Verification of these predictions requires measurements of spectrum and power of cosmic ray injection from supernova population(s). Here we obtain such measurements based on gamma-ray observation of Constellation III region of Large Magellanic Cloud. We show that gamma-ray emission from this young star formation region originates from cosmic rays injected by approximately two thousand supernovae, rather than by massive star wind powered superbubble pre-dating supernova activity. Cosmic ray injection power is found to be (1.1-0.2+0.5)x 1e50 erg/supernova (for the estimated interstellar medium density 0.3/cm3). The spectrum is a powerlaw with slope 2.09-0.07+0.06. This agrees with the model of particle acceleration at supernova shocks and provides a direct proof of the supernova origin of cosmic rays.

arXiv comment5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (21)

• The Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Mission
• Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
• Detection of the Characteristic Pion-Decay Signature in Supernova Remnants
• Fermi-LAT Observations of the Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission: Implications for Cosmic Rays and the Interstellar Medium
• New Understanding of Large Magellanic Cloud Structure, Dynamics and Orbit from Carbon Star Kinematics
• The Origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays
• The Star Formation History of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Development of the Model of Galactic Interstellar Emission for Standard Point-Source Analysis of Fermi Large Area Telescope Data
• Parametrization of gamma-ray production cross-sections for pp interactions in a broad proton energy range from the kinematic threshold to PeV energies
• The Parkes HI Survey of the Magellanic System
• Observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud with Fermi
• Radial distribution of the diffuse gamma-ray emissivity in the galactic disk
• Statistical Analysis of Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Direct Evidence for Hadronic Cosmic-Ray Acceleration in the Supernova Renmant IC 443
• Nonthermal particles and photons in starburst regions and superbubbles
• Deep view of the Large Magellanic Cloud with 6 years of Fermi-LAT observations
• Evidence of nearby supernovae affecting life on Earth
• Origin of TeV Galactic Cosmic Rays
• The Formation of Constellation III in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Hard spectrum of cosmic rays in the Disks of Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud
• Spatial and Spectral Modeling of the Gamma-ray Distribution in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Cosmic Ray Models
• The Limited Contribution of Low- and High-Luminosity Gamma-Ray Bursts to Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
• Search for ultra high energy cosmic rays from radiogalaxy Virgo A
• Unveiling the nature of the unidentified gamma-ray sources 4FGL J1908.6+0915e, HESS J1907+089/HOTS J1907+091, and 3HWC J1907+085 in the sky region of the magnetar SGR 1900+14