Ming Zhang
Department of Aerospace, Physics, and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology
TeV cosmic ray anisotropy in the local interstellar medium
Anisotropy contains crucial information about the source of cosmic rays and their propagation properties in the interstellar medium. When the first sky map of TeV cosmic rays was published nearly two decades ago, the anisotropy pattern looked so complicated that people speculated many theories about it. One explanation is the heliospheric effect. The heliospheric electric and magnetic fields cannot change particle trajectories and energy, thus distorting the anisotropy pattern. We have developed a technique called Liouville mapping to undo the heliospheric distortion. The true anisotropy map of TeV cosmic rays in the local interstellar medium is much simpler. It can reveal much detail about cosmic ray distribution and propagation in the interstellar medium. In addition, cosmic ray anisotropy can be used to explore the heliospheric and interstellar magnetic field structures.