Puzzles of Galactic continuum gamma rays

Abstract

Inverse Compton scattering appears to play a more important role in the diffuse Galactic continuum emission than previously thought, from MeV to GeV energies. We compare models having a large inverse Compton component with EGRET data, and find good agreement in the longitude and latitude distributions at low and high energies. We test an alternative explanation for the >1 GeV gamma-ray excess, the hard nucleon spectrum, using secondary antiprotons and positrons. At lower energies to fit the COMPTEL and OSSE data as diffuse emission requires either a steep upturn in the electron spectrum below 200 MeV or a population of discrete sources.