Origin of Spectral Hardening of Secondary Cosmic-Ray Nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the environment around supernova remnants influences the spectral hardening of secondary cosmic-ray nuclei, explaining recent observations by AMS-02 through models of cosmic-ray acceleration and escape.

Contribution

It demonstrates that a wind-like circumstellar medium causes secondary cosmic-ray spectra to harden, providing a new explanation for observed spectral features.

Findings

Secondary CR spectra are harder in wind-like CSM environments.

A past supernova with dense wind-like CSM can explain AMS-02 spectral hardening.

Model reproduces observed spectral features above 200 GV.

Abstract

We discuss the acceleration and escape of secondary cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei, such as lithium, beryllium and boron, produced by spallation of primary CR nuclei like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen accelerated at the shock in supernova remnants (SNRs) surrounded by the interstellar medium (ISM) or a circumstellar medium (CSM). We take into account the energy-dependent escape of CR particles from the SNR shocks, which is supported by gamma-ray observations of SNRs, to calculate the spectra of primary and secondary CR nuclei running away into the ambient medium. We find that if the SNR is surrounded by a CSM with a wind-like density distribution (i.e., $n_{\rm CSM}\propto r^{-2}$), the spectra of the escaping secondary nuclei are harder than those of the escaping primary nuclei, while if the SNR is surrounded by a uniform ISM, the spectra of the escaping secondaries are always softer than those of the escaping primaries. Using this result, we show that if there was a past supernova surrounded by a dense wind-like CSM ($\sim 2.5\times 10^{-3}M_{\odot}~{\rm yr}^{-1}$) which happened $\sim 1.6\times 10^5~{\rm yr}$ ago at a distance of $\sim 1.6~{\rm kpc}$, we can simultaneously reproduce the spectral hardening of primary and secondary CRs above $\sim 200~{\rm GV}$ that have recently been reported by AMS-02.