Robert Brose - Supernova Remnants as Accelerators of Galactic Cosmic Rays

Friday 19 Sept 2025, 10:30 → 12:00 Europe/Berlin

For over five decades, supernova remnants (SNRs) have been extensively studied as potential sources of Galactic cosmic rays (CRs). While they provide enough energy to sustain the Galactic CR spectrum at the low energies, their ability to accelerate particles to the knee of the CR spectrum at PeV-energies is lacking observational evidence. Many aspects regarding the microphysics of the acceleration process that would facilitate them to reach PeV-energies are not well understood to this day. However, these details are crucial for understanding which SNRs are potential CR factories and how the accelerated CRs might impact the interstellar medium in the vicinity of the SNRs.

 

This presentation will focus on the recent developments learnt from numerical simulations of two aspects of CR-acceleration, a) the ability of SNRs to accelerate CRs to the highest energies and thus qualifying SNRs the primary accelerators of the Galactic CR spectrum and b) the inevitable escape of particles from the SNRs deep-downstream over their lifetime and the observable signatures this will leave in the surrounding medium.