Diffuse Galactic gamma-rays: constraining cosmic-ray origin and propagation

Abstract

We have developed a model which aims to reproduce observational data of many kinds related to cosmic-ray (CR) origin and propagation: direct measurements of nuclei, antiprotons, electrons and positrons, gamma-rays, and synchrotron radiation. Our main results include evaluation of diffusion/convection and reacceleration models, estimates of the halo size, calculations of the interstellar positron and antiproton spectra, evaluation of alternative hypotheses of nucleon and electron interstellar spectra, and computation of the Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission. Recently our CR propagation code has been generalized to include fragmentation networks of arbitrary complexity. The code can now provide an alternative to leaky-box calculations for full isotopic abundance calculations and has the advantage of including the spatial dimension which is essential for radioactive nuclei. Preliminary predictions for sub-Fe/Fe, 10Be/9Be and 26Al/27Al are presented in anticipation of new experimental isotopic data. We show that combining information from classical CR studies with gamma-ray and other data leads to tighter constraints on CR origin and propagation.