Voyager 1 Data Reveals Signatures of the Local Gas and Cosmic-Ray Source Distributions

TL;DR

This study uses Voyager 1 data and GALPROP modeling to analyze how local interstellar medium structures influence cosmic-ray spectra, suggesting that primary cosmic-ray sources are likely located beyond 150-200 parsecs from the Solar system.

Contribution

It demonstrates the importance of local ISM modeling in interpreting cosmic-ray data and constrains the proximity of dominant cosmic-ray sources.

Findings

Voyager 1 data favors distant cosmic-ray sources beyond 150-200 pc.

Models support significant primary Boron presence at low energies.

Accounting for local ISM reduces discrepancies in cosmic-ray propagation models.

Abstract

We investigate the effects of the nearby interstellar medium (ISM) on the locally measured cosmic-ray (CR) spectra. Using the GALPROP code we explore how variations in the local gas and source distributions affect spectral features at low energies. Comparing with recent Voyager 1 measurements taken in the local ISM, we show that for a realistic interstellar gas distribution the data favour models in which there are no significant CR sources with ~150-200 pc of the Solar system, implying that the nearest dominant contributors to the low-energy CR flux are located at distances beyond this range. We find that the modelling supports the conclusions of Cummings et al. (2025) that there is a significant fraction of primary Boron in its observed spectrum at low energies. Our study shows that detailed modelling of the immediate Galactic environment is required to robustly infer Galactic CR propagation parameters from local measurements, and that accounting for nearby ISM structure can alleviate tensions between direct CR data and global propagation models.