Here we have described an approach for cosmic ray interaction, which
places most of the interactions near the site of origin, and have
summarized some the various predictions which follow. We will go
through these predictions quantitatively and check them off in detail against
data in further papers. The key is the suggestion that the transport of energetic
particles is diffusive in the thick composite shells around the wind of
progenitor stars of a mass larger than about 25 solar masses. Those
stars also are predicted to contribute cosmic rays all the way to
eV; in this concept the bend in the cosmic ray spectrum known as the "knee" is caused
by a decrease in the acceleration efficiency at a specific rigidity
(i.e., at a specific Larmor radius), and so the bend is there already in the source
(Biermann 1993a; Biermann & Cassinelli 1993; Biermann 1997a). Those stars produce most of the heavy
elements in this concept, and also most of the secondary nuclei. The contribution
to gamma ray emission, positrons, anti-protons, and neutrons is all due to a combination
of the interactions in the shells around stars in the mass range 15 to
25 solar masses, where the interaction is predicted to be convective, and the
stars of higher mass, where the interaction is predicted to be diffusive.
Acknowledgements
The work has benefitted from interactions and collaborations with Venya Berezinsky, Elly Berkhuijsen, Jim Connell, Alina and Fanel Donea, Torsten Enßlin, Glennys Farrar, Tom Gaisser, Stan Hunter, Bob Kinzer, Hartmut Machner, Norbert Magnussen, Karl Mannheim, Sera Markoff, Bill Matthaeus, Jim Matthews, Hinrich Meyer, Dietrich Müller, Biman Nath, Ray Protheroe, Giovanna Pugliese, Jörg Rachen, Reuven Ramaty, Wolfgang Rhode, John Simpson, Ramin Sina, Friedel Thielemann, Clemens Thum, Alan Watson, Barbara Wiebel-Sooth, and Christian Zier. An early version of some of these ideas was presented at a nuclear physics conference (Hirschegg 1998). Cosmic Ray work with E.-S.S. is supported by a NASA-grant, high energy work with P.L.B has been supported by a grant from DESY, and common work by P.L.B. and T.St. is supported by a NATO grant.
Copyright ESO 2001