A Forbush decrease (FD) is a depression of cosmic ray (CR) intensity observed by ground-based neutron monitors (NMs). The CR intensity is thought to be modulated by the heliospheric magnetic structures including the interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) surrounding the Earth. The different magnitude of the decreasing in intensity at each NM was explained only by the geomagnetic cutoff rigidity of the NM station. However, sometimes NMs of almost the same cutoff rigidity in northern and southern hemispheres observe the asymmetric intensity depression magnitudes of FD events. Thus, in this study we intend to see the effects on CR intensity modulation of FD event recorded at different NMs due to different ICME propagation directions as an additional parameter in the model explaining the CR modulation. Fortunately, since 2006 the coronagraphs of twin spacecraft of the STEREO mission allow us to infer the propagation direction of ICME associated with the FD event in 3-dimension with respect to the Earth. We suggest the hypothesis that the asymmetric CR modulations of FD events are determined by the propagation directions of the associated ICMEs.

Massive stars blow powerful stellar winds throughout their evolutionary stages from the main sequence to Wolf-Rayet phases. The amount of mechanical energy deposited in the interstellar medium by the wind from a massive star can be comparable to the explosion energy of a core-collapse supernova that detonates at the end of its life. In this study, we estimate the kinetic energy deposition by massive stars in our Galaxy by considering the integrated Galactic initial mass function and modeling the stellar wind luminosity. The mass loss rate and terminal velocity of stellar winds during the main sequence, red supergiant, and Wolf-Rayet stages are estimated by adopting theoretical calculations and observational data published in the literature. We find that the total stellar wind luminosity due to all massive stars in the Galaxy is about Lw ≈ 1.1 × 1041 erg s−1, which is about 1/4 of the power of supernova explosions, LSN ≈ 4.8 × 1041 erg s−1. If we assume that ∼ 1 − 10 % of the wind luminosity could be converted to Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) through collisonless shocks such as termination shocks in stellar bubbles and superbubbles, colliding-wind shocks in binaries, and bow-shocks of massive runaway stars, stellar winds might be expected to make a significant contribution to GCR production, though lower than that of supernova remnants.

We perform kinetic simulations of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) in Type Ia supernova remnants (SNRs) expanding into a uniform interstellar medium (ISM). Bohm-like diffusion due to self-excited Alfven waves is assumed, and simple models for Alfvenic drift and dissipation are adopted. Phenomenological models for thermal leakage injection are considered as well. We find that the preshock gas temperature is the primary parameter that governs the cosmic ray (CR) acceleration efficiency and energy spectrum, while the CR injection rate is a secondary parameter. For SNRs in the warm ISM of T0 ≲ 105K, if the injection fraction is ≳ 10-4, the DSA is efficient enough to convert more than 20% of the SN explosion energy into CRs and the accelerated CR spectrum exhibits a concave curvature flattening to E-1.6, which is characteristic of CR modified shocks. Such a flat source spectrum near the knee energy, however, may not be reconciled with the CR spectrum observed at Earth. On the other hand, SNRs in the hot ISM of T0 ≈106K with a small injection fraction, < 10-4, are inefficient accelerators with less than 10% of the explosion energy getting converted to CRs. Also the shock structure is almost test-particle like and the ensuing CR spectrum can be steeper than E-2. With amplified magnetic field strength of order of 30μG Alfven waves generated by the streaming instability may drift upstream fast enough to make the modified test-particle power-law as steep as E-2.3, which is more consistent with the observed CR spectrum.

We have calculated the cosmic ray(CR) acceleration at young remnants from Type Ia supernovae expanding into a uniform interstellar medium(ISM). Adopting quasi-parallel magnetic fields, gasdynamic equations and the diffusion convection equation for the particle distribution function are solved in a comoving spherical grid which expands with the shock. Bohm-type diffusion due to self-excited Alfven waves, drift and dissipation of these waves in the precursor and thermal leakage injection were included. With magnetic fields amplified by the CR streaming instability, the particle energy can reach up to 1016Z eV at young supernova remnants(SNRs) of several thousand years old. The fraction of the explosion energy transferred to the CR component asymptotes to 40-50 % by that time. For a typical SNR in a warm ISM, the accelerated CR energy spectrum should exhibit a concave curvature with the power-law slope flattening from 2 to 1.6 at E ≳ 0.1 TeV.

We present the results of the linear analysis for the Parker-Jeans instability in the magnetized gas disks including the effect of cosmic-ray diffusion along the magnetic field lines. We adopted an uni-formly rotating two temperature layered disk with a horizontal magnetic fields and solved the perturbed equations numerically. Fragmentation of gases takes place and filamentary structures are formed by the growth of the instability. Nagai et al. (1998) showed that the direction of filaments being formed by the Parker-Jeans instability depends on the strength of pressure outside the unperturbed gas disk. We found that at some range of external pressures the direction of filaments is also governed by the value of the diffusion coefficient of CR along the magnetic field lines k.

A substantial number of processes have been suggested as possible contributors to the extragalactic ɤ-ray background (EGRB). Yet another contribution to this background will be emission produced in hadronic interactions of cosmic-ray protons with the cluster thermal gas; this class of cosmic rays (CRs) has been shown to be responsible for the EUV emission in the Coma Cluster of galaxies. In this paper we assume the CRs in the Coma Cluster is prototypic of all clusters and derive the contribution to the EGRB from all clusters over time. We examine two different possibilities for the scaling of the CR flux with cluster size: the number density of the CRs scale with the number density of the thermal plasma, and alternatively, the energy density of the CRs scale with the energy density of the plasma. We find that in all scenarios the EGRB produced by this process is sufficiently low that it will not be observable in comparison with other mechanisms that are likely to produce an EGRB.