Cosmic Rays in the Galactic Centre

Abstract

The cosmic ray flux in the galactic centre region is predicted from the observed data for high energy y rays, y-ray lines and massive molecular clouds. The predicted cosmic ray fluxes above 1 GeVand below 100 MeV are two and four orders of magnitude respectively larger than the value in the neighbourhood of the solar system. The corresponding energy density of cosmic rays is estimated to be 100 eV cm- 3 ? Such a concentrated stream of cosmic rays could accelerate the dense and massive molecular clouds by transfer of their momentum.