Physical Review Letters· 2026Q1
Microquasars as the major contributors to Galactic cosmic rays around the knee
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
A population of ~10 active microquasars can explain the origin of Galactic cosmic rays around the 'knee' energy ($10^{15}$ eV) and associated gamma-ray emissions.
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Key points
- Powerful microquasars are identified as potential main Galactic PeVatrons based on LHAASO gamma-ray detections.
- A model suggests ~10 active microquasars can explain the proton flux around the cosmic-ray 'knee' energy.
- This microquasar population also accounts for the observed cosmic-ray hardening at 300 TeV and diffuse gamma-ray background above tens of TeV.
- The findings support a model where a few powerful microquasars are the dominant accelerators of cosmic rays around the knee.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Recently, LHAASO detected a gamma-ray emission extending beyond $100\,\rm{TeV}$ from 4 sources associated to powerful microquasars. We propose that such sources are the main Galactic PeVatrons and investigate their contribution to the proton and gamma-ray fluxes by modeling their entire population. We find that the presence of only $\sim10$ active powerful microquasars in the Galaxy at any given time is sufficient to account for the proton flux around the knee and to provide a very good explanation of cosmic-ray and gamma-ray data in a self-consistent picture. The $10\,\rm{TeV}$ bump and the $300\,\rm{TeV}$ hardening in the cosmic-ray spectrum naturally appear, and the diffuse background measured by LHAASO above a few tens of $\rm{TeV}$ is accounted for. This supports the paradigm in which cosmic rays around the knee are predominantly accelerated in a very limited number of powerful microquasars.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Physical Review Letters, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Nuclear and High Energy PhysicsPhysics and Astronomy