The GALPROP Cosmic-ray Propagation and Nonthermal Emissions Framework: Release v57

Abstract

Abstract The past decade has brought impressive advances in the astrophysics of cosmic rays (CRs) and multiwavelength astronomy, thanks to the new instrumentation launched into space and built on the ground. Modern technologies employed by those instruments provide measurements with unmatched precision, enabling searches for subtle signatures of dark matter and new physics. Understanding the astrophysical backgrounds to better precision than the observed data is vital in moving to this new territory. A state-of-the-art CR propagation code, called GalProp, is designed to address exactly this challenge. Having 25 yr of development behind it, the GalProp framework has become a de facto standard in the astrophysics of CRs, diffuse photon emissions (radio to γ-rays), and searches for new physics. GalProp uses information from astronomy, particle physics, and nuclear physics to predict CRs and their associated emissions self-consistently, providing a unifying modeling framework. The range of its physical validity covers 18 orders of magnitude in energy, from sub-keV to PeV energies for particles and from μeV to PeV energies for photons. The framework and the data sets are public and are extensively used by many experimental collaborations and by thousands of individual researchers worldwide for interpretation of their data and for making predictions. This paper details the latest release of the GalProp framework and updated cross sections, further developments of its initially auxiliary data sets for models of the interstellar medium that grew into independent studies of the Galactic structure—distributions of gas, dust, radiation, and magnetic fields—as well as the extension of its modeling capabilities. Example applications included with the distribution illustrating usage of the new features are also described.