Aritra's Online Home

Description

The origin of high energy cosmic rays is still not well understood and happens to be an open research question crucial for our understanding of the universe. Over the last few decades , cosmic rays have been investigated thoroughly thorough experiments with probably the most notable feature being the steeply falling energy spectrum with a cut-off. Recently, high energy neutrinos in the PeV regime have also been observed with fluxes well above what is expected from atmospheric showers. Reconciling such experimental evidence with theoretical knowledge relies heavily on the simulation of propagation and interaction physics of primary and secondary cosmic particles.CR Propa happens to be such a Public Astrophysical Simulation Framework

An interesting task in this direction happens to be the incorporation of Fermi Acceleration within CR Propa. Being the primary mechanism for charged particles to gain non-thermal energy in astrophysical shock waves, Fermi Acceleration has widespread applications (including the shock physics of Supernova Remnants, which happen to be potential candidates for high energy neutrinos). My project was focused on how to incorporate Fermi Acceleration within CR Propa and checking the consistency of simulation outputs with present experimental data. The primary difficulty in this regard happens to be the incorporation of turbulent E-B fields in the shock fronts. My primary supervisor was Prof. Olaf Scholten of KVI. I also closely collaborated with the Astronomy and Astrophysics & ICE-Cube groups at VuB and spent about 3 months in Brussels in early 2017.

The list below contains a few links related to the research

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Relevant Links