The last Gamma Ray Burst in our Galaxy? On the observed cosmic ray excess at particle energy 1 EeV

Abstract

Here we propose that the excess flux of particle events of energy near 1 EeV from the direction of the Galactic Center region is due to the production of cosmic rays by the last few Gamma Ray Bursts in our Galaxy. The basic idea is that protons get accelerated inside Gamma Ray Bursts, then get ejected as neutrons, decay and so turn back into protons, meander around the inner Galaxy for some time, and then interact again, turning back to neutrons to be observed at our distance from the Galactic Center region, where most star formation is happening in our Galaxy. We demonstrate that this suggestion leads to a successful interpretation of the data, within the uncertainties of cosmic ray transport time scales in the inner Galaxy, and in conjunction with many arguments in the literature.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Ap. J. Letters

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• Pinning down the cosmic ray source mechanism with new IceCube data
• Role of Galactic sources and magnetic fields in forming the observed energy-dependent composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays
• Anisotropy studies around the galactic centre at EeV energies with the Auger Observatory
• Cosmic Rays: The Second Knee and Beyond
• Galactic discrete sources of high energy neutrinos
• Cosmic Ray Astronomy
• Cosmic Rays from Gamma Ray Bursts in the Galaxy
• Experimental constraints on the astrophysical interpretation of the cosmic ray Galactic-extragalactic transition region
• Extended GeV-TeV Emission around Gamma-Ray Burst Remnants, and the Case of W49B
• Search for Point-Like Sources of Cosmic Rays with Energies above 10^18.5 eV in the HiRes-I Monocular Data-Set
• Astronomy with ultra high-energy particles
• Ultrahigh-energy nuclei, photons, and magnetic fields
• Cosmic connections: from cosmic rays to gamma rays, to cosmic backgrounds and magnetic fields
• Anisotropy studies around the galactic center