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Stellar versus galactic: the intensity of cosmic rays at the evolving earth and young exoplanets around sun-like stars

Rodgers-Lee, Donna orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-0100-1297, Taylor, A.M., Vidotto, Aline orcid logoORCID: 0000-0001-5371-2675 and Downes, Turlough orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-7639-5446 (2021) Stellar versus galactic: the intensity of cosmic rays at the evolving earth and young exoplanets around sun-like stars. Monthly Notices Of The Royal Astronomical Society, 504 (1). pp. 1519-1530. ISSN 0035-8711

Abstract
Energetic particles, such as stellar cosmic rays, produced at a heightened rate by active stars (like the young Sun) may have been important for the origin of life on Earth and other exoplanets. Here, we compare, as a function of stellar rotation rate (ω), contributions from two distinct populations of energetic particles: stellar cosmic rays accelerated by impulsive flare events and Galactic cosmic rays. We use a 1.5D stellar wind model combined with a spatially 1D cosmic ray transport model. We formulate the evolution of the stellar cosmic ray spectrum as a function of stellar rotation. The maximum stellar cosmic ray energy increases with increasing rotation, i.e. towards more active/younger stars. We find that stellar cosmic rays dominate over Galactic cosmic rays in the habitable zone at the pion threshold energy for all stellar ages considered (t_∗=0.6-2.9 Gyr). However, even at the youngest age, t_∗=0.6 Gyr, we estimate that ≳, 80 MeV stellar cosmic ray fluxes may still be transient in time. At ∼1 Gyr when life is thought to have emerged on Earth, we demonstrate that stellar cosmic rays dominate over Galactic cosmic rays up to ∼4 GeV energies during flare events. Our results for t∗ = 0.6 Gyr (ω = 4 ω·) indicate that GeV stellar cosmic rays are advected from the star to 1 au and are impacted by adiabatic losses in this region. The properties of the inner solar wind, currently being investigated by the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter, are thus important for accurate calculations of stellar cosmic rays around young Sun-like stars.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Additional Information:The output data underlying this article are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4707597
Uncontrolled Keywords:diffusion methods; numerical; Sun: evolution ; stars; magnetic field; cosmic rays
Subjects:Physical Sciences > Astronomy
Physical Sciences > Astronomy > Astrophysics
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health > School of Mathematical Sciences
Publisher:Oxford University Press for The Royal Astronomical Society
Official URL:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab935
Copyright Information:© 2021 The Authors.
Funders:European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 817540, ASTROFLOW).
ID Code:29259
Deposited On:05 Dec 2023 10:27 by Vidatum Academic . Last Modified 22 Dec 2023 10:35
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