Formation of Cosmic Ray Momentum Spectra

Abstract

The calculations in the preceding Chaps. 16 and 17 have indicated that near supernova shock waves, and in the Galaxy, the equilibrium cosmic ray momentum distributions result from the competition of particle acceleration and particle escape by diffusion and/or convection. The competition of these two processes results from the general cosmic ray transport equation (14.2.7) if all other momentum loss and gain processes operate on longer time scales. In this chapter we study the equilibrium spectra in cases where other elementary interaction processes (like radiation losses) are rapid compared to the acceleration and escape processes.