Early Galactic Li, Be and B: Implications on Cosmic Ray Origin

Abstract

Be abundances of old, low metallicity halo stars have major implications on cosmic-ray origin, requiring acceleration out of fresh supernova ejecta. The observed, essentially constant Be/Fe fixes the Be production per SNII, allowing the determination of the energy supplied to cosmic rays per SNII. The results rule out acceleration out of the metal-poor ISM, and favor Be production at all epochs of Galactic evolution by cosmic rays having the same spectrum and source composition as those at the current epoch. Individual supernova acceleration of its own nucleosynthetic products and the collective acceleration by SN shocks of ejecta-enriched matter in the interiors of superbubbles have been proposed for such origin. The supernova acceleration efficiency is about 2% for the refractory metals and 10% for all the cosmic rays.