Propagation Studies Related to the Origin of Cosmic Rays

Abstract

Propagation of cosmic rays is discussed with the intent of deriving results relevent to the origin of cosmic rays. Starting from a brief description of the methods for demodulating the effects of the solar wind on the spectra of particles, we describe an accurate method for correcting for spallation effects on the cosmic-ray nuclei during their transport from the sources subsequent to their acceleration. We present the composition of cosmic rays at the sources and discuss its implications to their origin. We discuss briefly the effects of stochastic acceleration in the interstellar medium on the relative spectra of primaries and secondaries in cosmic rays and show that the observation of decreasing relative abundance of secondaries with increasing energy rules out such phenomena for galactic cosmic rays. The spectrum of cosmicray electrons is discussed in terms of contributions from a discrete set of sources situated at various distances from the solar system on the galactic plane. We show that unless there are at least 3.10⁴ sources actively accelerating cosmis rays in the Galaxy the spectrum of electrons would have a premature cut-off at high energies. Finally we point out some important questions that need to be clearly resolved for making further progress in the field.