On the e+e- excesses and the knee of the cosmic ray spectra - Hints of cosmic ray acceleration in young supernova remnants

Abstract

Supernova remnants (SNRs) have long been regarded as sources of the Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) up to petaelectronvolts, but convincing evidence is still lacking. In this work we explore the common origin of the subtle features of the CR spectra, such as the knee of CR spectra and the excesses of electron/positron fluxes recently observed by ATIC, H.E.S.S., Fermi-LAT, and PAMELA. Numerical calculation shows that those features of CR spectra can be well reproduced in a scenario with e+e- pair production by interactions between high-energy CRs and background photons in an environment similar to the young SNR. The success of such a coherent explanation serves in turn as evidence that at least a portion of CRs might be accelerated in young SNRs. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.