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Copyright by Athena Ranice Stacy 2011 - The University of Texas at ...

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β =<br />

<br />

1 −<br />

<br />

−2<br />

1/2<br />

ɛ<br />

+ 1<br />

mHc2 . (6.24)<br />

Here, mH is the mass <strong>of</strong> a proton, β = v/c, and (dɛ/dt)ion is the r<strong>at</strong>e <strong>of</strong> CR<br />

energy loss due to ioniz<strong>at</strong>ion. <strong>The</strong> cut<strong>of</strong>f value <strong>of</strong> β0 0.01 is appropri<strong>at</strong>e for<br />

CRs traveling through a medium <strong>of</strong> <strong>at</strong>omic hydrogen, since β0c = 0.01c is the<br />

approxim<strong>at</strong>e orbital velocity <strong>of</strong> electrons in the ground st<strong>at</strong>e <strong>of</strong> <strong>at</strong>omic hydro-<br />

gen. When the velocity <strong>of</strong> CRs falls below β0c, the interaction between the<br />

CRs and electrons will sharply decrease, as will the ioniz<strong>at</strong>ion r<strong>at</strong>e (Schlickeiser<br />

2002), but for our study all CRs are assumed to be above this critical velocity.<br />

Thus, for a given distance D into a cloud, a CR has an effective optical depth<br />

<strong>of</strong> D/Dp. Fig. 6.1 shows the dependence <strong>of</strong> Dp on CR energy for a neutral hy-<br />

drogen density <strong>of</strong> nH 0 = 1 cm−3 , which is typical for densities in the minihalo<br />

case. Densities will <strong>of</strong> course gre<strong>at</strong>ly increase towards the end <strong>of</strong> the free-fall<br />

evolution, but the size <strong>of</strong> the collapsing gas cloud, and thus the distance CRs<br />

must travel, will decrease. Although the overall <strong>at</strong>tenu<strong>at</strong>ion would be slightly<br />

gre<strong>at</strong>er if the time-dependent density evolution were accounted for instead <strong>of</strong><br />

using a constant <strong>at</strong>tenu<strong>at</strong>ion value, when comparing these two cases the dif-<br />

ference is not large enough to yield a significant vari<strong>at</strong>ion in the minihalo’s<br />

temper<strong>at</strong>ure evolution. For simplicity, only the typical density was therefore<br />

used in calcul<strong>at</strong>ing the <strong>at</strong>tenu<strong>at</strong>ion.<br />

As can be seen in Fig. 6.1, the lowest-energy CRs do not get <strong>at</strong>tenu<strong>at</strong>ed<br />

until they travel a distance <strong>of</strong> about a few hundred pc, so in gas clouds <strong>of</strong><br />

this size or smaller the CR flux will not be significantly <strong>at</strong>tenu<strong>at</strong>ed. This<br />

also shows th<strong>at</strong> the low-energy CRs are the ones th<strong>at</strong> will have the gre<strong>at</strong>est<br />

ioniz<strong>at</strong>ion and he<strong>at</strong>ing contribution to the cloud, as they more readily release<br />

159

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