Sgr A East as a possible high energy neutron factory in the Galactic Centre

Abstract

Sgr A East is a supernova remnant located within few parsecs from the Galactic Centre (GC). There are good reasons to believe that this object is the source of the gamma-ray excess detected by HESS in the direction of the GC meaning that Sgr A East is likely to be an efficient Cosmic Ray accelerator. Some observations suggest that strong magnetic fields may be present in that region allowing the acceleration of composite nuclei in Sgr A East beyond the EeV. We show that, if this is case, EeV neutrons should be effectively produced by the photo-disintegration of Ultra High Energy nuclei onto the IR photon background (with temperature $\sim 40$ K) in which Sgr A East is embedded. Neutrons with such an energy can reach the Earth before decaying and may be detectable under the form of a CR point-like excess in the direction of the GC. We determine the expected energy spectrum and the amplitude of this signal showing that it may be measurable by the AUGER observatory.

26 pages, 7 figures. Final version to appear in Astroparticle Physics

References in corpus (4)

• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (in "The Review of Particle Properties" 2004)
• Very high energy gamma rays from the direction of Sagittarius A*
• Calibration of cameras of the H.E.S.S. detector
• The AGASA/SUGAR Anisotropies and TeV Gamma Rays from the Galactic Center: A Possible Signature of Extremely High-energy Neutrons

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Observation of Gamma Rays from the Galactic Center with the MAGIC Telescope
• Cosmic Ray Anisotropy as Signature for the Transition from Galactic to Extragalactic Cosmic Rays
• Anisotropy studies around the galactic centre at EeV energies with the Auger Observatory
• Cosmic Rays: The Second Knee and Beyond
• TeV gamma-rays and neutrinos from photo-disintegration of nuclei in Cygnus OB2
• Cosmic Ray Astronomy
• Looking for a Heavy Higgsino LSP in Collider and Dark Matter Experiments
• TeV Neutrinos from SuperNova Remnants embedded in Giant Molecular Clouds
• Looking for a heavy wino LSP in collider and dark matter experiments
• Detectable neutrino fluxes due to enhanced cosmic ray densities in the Galactic Center region
• 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
• Cosmic Rays at the Highest Energies -- First Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory --
• Anisotropy studies around the galactic center