High energy cosmic-ray interactions with particles from the Sun

作者：Andersen Kristoffer K^*; Klein Spencer R

来源：Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 2011, 83(10): 103519.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevD.83.103519

Cosmic-ray protons with energies above 10(16) eV passing near the Sun may interact with photons emitted by the Sun and be excited to a Delta(+) resonance. When the Delta(+) decays, it produces pions which further decay to muons and photons which may be detected with terrestrial detectors. A flux of muons, photon pairs (from pi(0) decay), or individual high energy photons coming from near the Sun would be a rather striking signature, and the flux of these particles is a fairly direct measure of the flux of cosmic-ray nucleons, independent of the cosmic-ray composition. In a solid angle within 15 degrees around the Sun, the flux of photon pairs is about 1.3 x 10(-3) particles/(km(2) . yr), while the flux of muons is about 0.33 x 10(-3) particles/(km(2) . yr). This is beyond the reach of current detectors like the Telescope Array, Auger, KASCADE-Grande, or IceCube. However, the muon flux might be detectable by next-generation air-shower arrays or neutrino detectors such as ARIANNA or ARA. We discuss the experimental prospects in some detail. Other cosmic-ray interactions occurring close to the Sun are also briefly discussed.

• 出版日期2011-5-17