Limitations on the photo-disintegration process as a source of VHE photons

作者：Aharonian Felix; Taylor Andrew M^*

来源：Astroparticle Physics, 2010, 34(5): 258-266.

DOI：10.1016/j.astropartphys.2010.08.004

• Cosmic rays
• Photo-disintegration
• VHE gamma-rays

We consider whether photo-disintegration is ever able to provide an effective mechanism for the production of VHE gamma-ray emission from astrophysical sources. We find that the efficiency of this process is always smaller by a factor A/Z(2) (similar to 4/A) than that of nuclei cooling through Bethe-Heitler pair-production. Furthermore, for sources optically thin to TeV emission, we find that the efficiency of this process can be no more than 3 x 10(-5)(R(source)/R(Larmor)), where R(source) is the source size and R(Larmor) is the CR nuclei Larmor radius. We conclude that this process is unable to provide an effective mechanism for VHE gamma-ray emission from astrophysical sources.

• 出版日期2010-12