A Study of the B/C Ratio Between 10 MeV/nuc and 1 TeV/nuc in Cosmic Rays Using New Voyager and AMS-2 Data and a Comparison with the Predictions of Leaky Box Propagation Models

TL;DR

This study analyzes cosmic ray B/C ratios across a wide energy range using Voyager and AMS-2 data, comparing observations with Leaky Box Models to understand cosmic ray propagation and source material interactions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that a simple Leaky Box Model with a specific diffusion dependence fits high-energy data but struggles to explain low-energy measurements, suggesting complex propagation effects.

Findings

High-energy B/C ratios align with a Leaky Box Model using P^-0.45 diffusion

Predicted B/C at 800 GeV/nuc matches AMS-2 measurements

Low-energy B/C measurements are significantly higher than model predictions

Abstract

This paper seeks to find an explanation of the galactic cosmic ray B/C ratio newly measured in cosmic rays between ~10 MeV/nuc and 1 TeV/nuc. Voyager measurements of this ratio at low energies and AMS-2 measurements at high energies are used in this study. These measurements both considerably exceed at both low and high energies the ratio predicted using a simple Leaky Box Model for propagation of cosmic rays in the galaxy. Between 1-70 GeV/nuc, however, this same model provides an excellent fit (within +2-3%) to the new AMS-2 measurements using an escape length ~P-0.45. This would imply a diffusion coefficient ~P0.45, very close to the Kraichian cascade value of 0.50 for the exponent. Extending this same diffusion dependence to high energies, still in a LBM, along with a truncation of short path lengths in the galaxy will predict a B/C ratio of 4.5% at ~800 GeV/nuc which is very close to the AMS-2 measurement at that energy. This would indicate that the amount of material traversed near the source in a Nested LBM, for example, is less than about 0.5 g/cm2 at these energies since this process, with additional matter near the sources, would increase the B/C ratio. At low energies, however, the B/C ratio of 14% +3% at ~10 MeV/nuc measured by Voyager is more difficult to explain. The same parameters used in a LBM that fit the high energy B/C measurements predicts a B/C ratio of only ~4% at 10 MeV/nuc where the path length is about 1.5 g/cm2. If the cosmic rays have traversed ~10 g/cm2 of material in the galaxy at low energies the prediction for B/C is still only 8%, which is between 2.0-3.0 sigma below the measurement and its errors.