Speaker
Description
The origin of high-energy cosmic rays remains one of the most investigated open questions in astroparticle physics. The presence of the knee in the cosmic-ray energy spectrum is particularly interesting, as it indicates the maximum energy that cosmic rays within our Galaxy can be accelerated to. To search for possible sites of Galactic cosmic-ray acceleration, we can look for gamma rays that high-energy cosmic rays produce when interacting with molecular gas close to their production site. Supernova remnants (SNRs) have long been considered as contenders for sources that can accelerate up to this threshold.
In this contribution, we describe our search for SNRs that may be capable of accelerating high-energy cosmic rays. We perform three-dimensional particle diffusion and time-dependent SNR evolution modelling to simulate the gamma-ray flux expected from an extensive list of SNR and molecular cloud (MC) combinations in our Galaxy. These combinations have been compared with unidentified sources from the H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey (HGPS) to identify possible origins of these sources. We additionally investigate the model parameters that allow SNR-MC combinations to produce gamma-ray fluxes that have evaded current gamma-ray telescopes, but would be observable with the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO).
