Cosmic Ray Helium Hardening

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new model explaining the observed hardening of cosmic ray helium spectra by suggesting they originate from helium-rich regions like superbubbles, with energy-dependent escape from supernova remnants.

Contribution

It introduces a novel explanation for cosmic ray helium hardening based on chemical enrichment and energy-dependent escape, without requiring different sources.

Findings

CR helium spectrum is harder than proton spectrum below 10^15 eV.

Helium to proton ratio at 100 TeV exceeds primordial abundance.

Model predicts similar hardening for heavier cosmic ray elements.

Abstract

Recent observations by CREAM and ATIC-2 experiments suggest that (1) the spectrum of cosmic ray (CR) helium is harder than that of CR proton below the knee 10^15 eV and (2) all CR spectra become hard at > 10^11 eV/n. We propose a new picture that higher energy CRs are generated in more helium-rich region to explain the hardening (1) without introducing different sources for CR helium. The helium to proton ratio at ~100 TeV exceeds the Big Bang abundance Y=0.25 by several times, and the different spectrum is not reproduced within the diffusive shock acceleration theory. We argue that CRs are produced in the chemically enriched region, such as a superbubble, and the outward-decreasing abundance naturally leads to the hard spectrum of CR helium if CRs escape from the supernova remnant (SNR) shock in an energy-dependent way. We provide a simple analytical spectrum that also fits well the hardening (2) because of the decreasing Mach number in the hot superbubble with ~ 10^6 K. Our model predicts hard and concave spectra for heavier CR elements.