TeV {gamma} rays and neutrinos from photodisintegration of nuclei in Cygnus OB2
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201 (United States)
- CCAPP, Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235 (United States)
TeV {gamma}-rays may provide significant information about high energy astrophysical accelerators. Such {gamma}-rays can result from the photo-de-excitation of PeV nuclei after their parents have undergone photo-disintegration in an environment of ultraviolet photons. This process is proposed as a candidate explanation of the recently discovered HEGRA source at the edge of the Cygnus OB2 association. The Lyman-{alpha} background is provided by the rich O and B stellar environment. It is found that (1) the HEGRA flux can be obtained if there is efficient acceleration at the source of lower energy nuclei; (2) the requirement that the Lorentz-boosted ultraviolet photons can excite the giant dipole resonance implies a strong suppression of the {gamma}-ray spectrum compared to an E{sub {gamma}}{sup -2} behavior at energies < or approx. 1 TeV (some of these energies will be probed by the upcoming GLAST mission); (3) a TeV neutrino counterpart from neutron decay following helium photo-disintegration will be observed at IceCube only if a major proportion of the kinetic energy budget of the Cygnus OB2 association is expended in accelerating nuclei.
- OSTI ID:
- 21020122
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 75, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.75.063001; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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