Cosmic-ray electrons released by supernova remnants

Abstract

The process that allows cosmic rays to escape from their sources and be released into the Galaxy is still largely unknown. The comparison between cosmic-ray electron and proton spectra measured at Earth suggests that electrons are released with a spectrum steeper than protons by $\Delta s_{\mathrm{ep}}\sim 0.3$ for energies above $\sim 10$ GeV and by $\Delta s_{\mathrm{ep}}\sim 1.2$ above $\sim 1$ TeV. Assuming that both species are accelerated at supernova remnant shocks, we here explore two possible scenarios that can in principle justify steeper electron spectra: (i) energy losses due to synchrotron radiation in an amplified magnetic field, and (ii) time dependent acceleration efficiency. We account for magnetic field amplification produced by either cosmic-ray induced instabilities or by magneto-hydrodynamics instabilities my means of a parametric description. We show that both mechanisms are required to explain the electron spectrum. In particular synchrotron losses can only produce a significant electron steepening above $\sim 1$~TeV, while a time dependent acceleration can explain the spectrum at lower energies if the electron injection into diffusive shock acceleration is inversely proportional to the shock speed. We discuss observational and theoretical evidences supporting such a behaviour. Furthermore, we predict two additional spectral features: a spectral break below $\sim$ few GeV (as required by existing observations) due to the acceleration efficiency drop during the adiabatic phase, and a spectral hardening above $\sim 20$ TeV (where no data are available yet) resulting from electrons escaping from the shock precursor.

14 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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