Astrophysicists have found the place where the particle accelerator of the Milky Way is located

A huge number of particles come to Earth from space. Most of them, mainly protons and atomic

ядра, несут энергию в несколько ГэВ или даже less. Among them are individual particles with an energy of about 1 PeV (peta is 1015, or a thousand trillion). Astrophysicists assumed that there must be an accelerator in the Milky Way that accelerates particles to such high energies. It turned out to be supernova remnant G106.3 + 2.7.

Astrophysicists from the University of Wisconsin-Madisonstudied G106.3+2.7, a supernova remnant located 2,600 light-years from Earth. They studied gamma-ray data obtained by the Fermi-LAT space telescope, as well as X-ray and radio waves measured by other observatories. Simulations have shown that G106.3 + 2.7 is a source that accelerates particles to ultra-high energies. 

Gamma radiation residual significance maps fromanalysis of Fermi-LAT data in the range 0.1–500 GeV over 12 years (top left) and divided into three energy intervals: 0.1–1 GeV (top right), 1–10 GeV (bottom left) and >10 GeV
(lower right). Image: Ke Fang et al., Phys. Rev.

It is believed that pevatrons exist in ourgalaxy. But so far, no evidence has been found for any candidate. The difficulty with object identification is due to the fact that cosmic rays can be deflected by the galactic magnetic field due to their electrical charge, the directions of their arrival observed on Earth do not point back to their place of origin.

Fortunately, cosmic rays, after accelerating intheir sources can collide with neighboring molecular clouds and produce gamma rays. Astrophysicists map cosmic ray sources indirectly by observing gamma rays. It arises during the interaction of accelerated particles with interstellar material near the "accelerator". But the very high energy radiation that could indicate a pevatron could also be generated by other processes, such as Compton backscattering of cosmic background radiation by relativistic electrons.

In their work, scientists have shown thatthe supernova generates a stream of particles of high power, while they did not find signs of Compton scattering in the radiation region. The authors of the study hope that G106.3+2.7 will be the first of many pevatrons in the Milky Way.

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