Implications on Spatial Models of Interstellar Gamma-Ray Inverse-Compton Emission from Synchrotron Emission Studies in Radio and Microwaves

Understand

Cosmic rays interacting with gas and photon fields in the Galaxy produce interstellar gamma-ray emission (IGE), which accounts for almost 50% of the photons detected at gamma-ray energies.

• Models of this IGE have to be very accurate for interpreting the high-quality observations by present gamma-ray telescopes, such as Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT).
• Standard models of IGE, used as reference models for analyses of the Fermi LAT data, show spatial discrepancies with respect to the data, underlining the necessity of more realistic models.
• The same CR electrons that produce the inverse-Compton component of the IGE produce also interstellar synchrotron emission observed in radio and microwave.