THE WMAP haze from the galactic center region due to massive star explosions and a reduced cosmic ray scale height

Abstract

One important prediction of acceleration of particles in the supernova caused shock in the magnetic wind of exploding Wolf-Rayet and red supergiant stars is the production of an energetic particle component with an E -2 spectrum at a level on the order of 1% of the full cosmic ray electron population. After allowing for transport effects, so steepening the spectrum to E -7/3, this component as cosmic ray electrons readily explains the WMAP haze from the Galactic center region in spectrum, intensity, and radial profile; this requires the diffusion timescale for cosmic rays in the Galactic center region to be much shorter than in the solar neighborhood: the energy for cosmic ray electrons at the transition between diffusion dominance and loss dominance is shifted to considerably higher particle energy. We predict that more precise observations will find a radio spectrum of ν-2/3, at higher frequencies ν-1, and at yet higher frequencies finally ν-3/2. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.