https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20159003001
Cosmic-ray world with gamma-ray astronomy: a wealth on information, an even more open issue
INAF - Osservatorio astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50142, Florence
a e-mail: martina@arcetri.astro.it
Published online: 24 March 2015
Since from their discovery in 1912, Cosmic-Rays (CRs) are one of the most debated issues of the high energy astrophysics. Their origin is still a fundamental problem and is the subject of very intense research. Until now, the best candidate sources of Galactic CR component are Supernova Remnants (SNRs) but final proof for the origin of CRs up to the knee can only be obtained through two fundamental signatures, the detection of a clear gamma-ray signature of π0 decay in Galactic sources and the identification of sources emitting a photon spectrum up to PeV energies. Both indications are quite difficult to obtain. The two gamma-ray satellites, AGILE and Fermi, together with ground telescopes operating in the TeV energy range (HESS, VERITAS and MAGIC), collected a great amount of data from SNRs. In spite of the recent discovery of the neutral pion spectral signature in the SNR W44 spectrum by AGILE (and confirmed by Fermi-LAT), all gamma-ray data collected at GeV and TeV energies for several young and middle-aged SNRs provide interesting challenges to current theoretical models. The emerging view from gamma-ray and particle detection is intriguing and lead to revisit the CR-SNR paradigm, considering also the contribution of other kind of sources.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2015
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.