Cosmic Rays From Large Supernovae (open access)

Cosmic Rays From Large Supernovae

The theory of the hydrodynamic origin of cosmic rays proposed by Johnson and the author (Colgate) has developed to the point where the final evolution of a star to the supernova instability and subsequent explosion can be described with sufficient detail such that cosmic rays with appropriate intensity, composition, and spectrum to account for observations are a logical and necessary result. In the first publication it was pointed out that nuclei in the surface of the star may acquire many orders or magnitude more than the average energy per particle released in the explosion because of the large ratio of matter density between the core and the outer mantle. A shock from a sudden pressure increase in the core intensifies as it advances into lower-density material, thereby imparting extreme relativistic energies to the outermost layers. The shock wave was assumed on the basis that the observed explosion occurred in a time short compared to the traversal time of sound across the dimensions of the star. It was argued without proof that an adiabatic process would be inconsistent with the accepted gravitational instability as the trigger mechanism. In an attempt to confirm this supposition we extend the hydrodynamic calculations to describe …
Date: October 21, 1963
Creator: Colgate, S. A. & White, R. H.
System: The UNT Digital Library