The escape model for Galactic cosmic rays

Abstract

The escape model explains the cosmic ray (CR) knee by energy-dependent CR leakage from the Milky Way, with an excellent fit to all existing data. We test this model calculating the trajectories of individual CRs in the Galactic magnetic field. We find that the CR escape time τesc(E) exhibits a knee-like structure around E/Z = few × 1015 eV for small coherence lengths and strengths of the turbulent magnetic field. The resulting intensities for different groups of nuclei are consistent with the ones determined by KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande, using simple power-laws as injection spectra. The transition from Galactic to extragalactic CRs happens in this model at low energies and is terminated below ≈ 3 × 1018 eV. The intermediate energy region up to the ankle is populated by CRs accelerated in starburst galaxies. This model provides a good fit to ln(A) data, while the estimated CR dipole anisotropy is close to, or below, upper limits in the energy range 1017 - 1018 eV. The phase of the dipole is expected to change between 1 × 1017 and 3 × 1018 eV.