Secondary Antiprotons in Galactic Cosmic Radiation

By Stephen Rosen

ABSTRACT

CALCULATIONS ARE PRESENTED of the production of secondary antiprotons due to inelastic collisions of high-energy primary cosmic rays with interstellar gas nuclei. Cosmic-ray diffusion theory is assumed to apply in the steady-state approximation, with a constant average beam intensity taken over space. The cosmic-ray energy spectrum, production thresholds, cosmic-ray, and target abundances and densities, and production and annihilation cross-sections are examined and utilized. The results give a very approximate energy spectrum for the antiproton flux. Astrophysical ramifications of this collision source of antiprotons are discussed in light of the dominance of leakage over annihilation as a mechanism of antiproton loss.

Received 4 November 1966
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.158.1227
©1967 American Physical Society

Secondary Antiprotons in Galactic Cosmic Radiation

By Stephen Rosen

ABSTRACT

CALCULATIONS ARE PRESENTED of the production of secondary antiprotons due to inelastic collisions of high-energy primary cosmic rays with interstellar gas nuclei. Cosmic-ray diffusion theory is assumed to apply in the steady-state approximation, with a constant average beam intensity taken over space. The cosmic-ray energy spectrum, production thresholds, cosmic-ray, and target abundances and densities, and production and annihilation cross-sections are examined and utilized. The results give a very approximate energy spectrum for the antiproton flux. Astrophysical ramifications of this collision source of antiprotons are discussed in light of the dominance of leakage over annihilation as a mechanism of antiproton loss.

Received 4 November 1966
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.158.1227
©1967 American Physical Society