Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2289/1647
Title: Cosmic rays, lithium abundance and excess entropy in galaxy clusters
Authors: Nath, Biman B.
Madau, Piero
Silk, Joseph
Keywords: nuclear reactions
nucleosynthesis
abundances
stars: abundances
cosmic rays
early Universe
gamma-rays: theory
Issue Date: Feb-2006
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing for the Royal Astronomical Society
Citation: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 2006, Vol.366, Issue 1, pL35-L39.
Abstract: We consider the production of 6Li in spallation reactions by cosmic rays in order to explain the observed abundance in halo metal-poor stars. We show that heating of ambient gas by cosmic rays is an inevitable consequence of this process, and estimate the energy input required to reproduce the observed abundance of 6Li/H ~ 10-11 to be of the order of a few hundred eV per particle. We draw attention to the possibility that this could explain the excess entropy in gas in galaxy groups and clusters. The evolution of 6Li and the accompanying heating of gas are calculated for structures collapsing at the present epoch with injection of cosmic rays at high redshift. We determine the energy required to explain the abundance of 6Li at z~ 2 corresponding to the formation epoch of halo metal-poor stars, and also an increased entropy level of ~300 keV cm2 necessary to explain X-ray observations of clusters. The energy budget for this process is consistent with the expected energy output of radio-loud active galactic nuclei, and the diffusion length-scale of cosmic ray protons responsible for heating is comparable to the size of regions with excess entropy. We also discuss the constraints imposed by the extragalactic gamma-ray background.
Description: Restricted Access. An Open Access version is available at arXiv.org.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2289/1647
ISSN: 0035-8711
Alternative Location: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0511631
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-3933.2005.00127.x
Copyright: (2005) The Authors & the Royal Astronomical Society
Appears in Collections:Research Papers (A&A)

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
2006 MNRAS366pL35.pdf
  Restricted Access
Restricted Access134.56 kBAdobe PDFView/Open Request a copy


Items in RRI Digital Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.