The energy spectrum of galactic electrons produced by cosmic rays

Collisions between cosmic-ray protons and interstellar hydrogen nuclei will produce secondary electrons through the reaction chain The production energy spectrum of these electrons has been calculated by means of a simplified version of the isobaric nucléon model of pion production. The resulting spectrum exhibits a broad maximum at a kinetic energy of about 25 Mev. It is shown that the high-energy (E>1 gev) part of the spectrum will be of the same form as the cosmic-ray spectrum if the total inelastic p-p cross section remains essentially constant at high energies.