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Gamma-Rays Produced in Cosmic-Ray Interactions and the TeV-band Spectrum of RX J1713-3946

In this work we study the individual contribution to diffuse $γ$-ray emission from the secondary products in hadronic interactions generated by cosmic rays (CRs), in addition to the contribution of $π^0$ decay via the decay mode $π^0 \to 2γ$. For that purpose we employ the Monte Carlo particle collision code DPMJET3.04 to determine the multiplicity spectra of various secondary particles with $γ$'s as the final decay state, that result from inelastic collisions between cosmic-ray protons and Helium nuclei and the interstellar medium with standard composition. We thus derive an easy-to-use $γ$-ray production matrix for cosmic ray up to about 10 PeV, that can be used to interpret the $γ$-ray spectra of diffuse galactic emission and supernova remnants (SNR). We apply the $γ$-ray production matrix to the GeV excess in diffuse galactic $γ$-rays that was seen with EGRET. Although the non-$π^0$ contributions to the total emission have a different spectrum than the $π^0$-decay component, they are insufficient to explain the GeV excess. We also test the hypothesis that the TeV-band $γ$-ray emission of the shell-type SNR RX J1713-3946, that was observed with HESS, is caused by shock-accelerated hadronic cosmic rays. This scenario implies a very high efficacy of particle acceleration, so the particle spectrum is expected to continuously harden toward high energies on account of cosmic-ray modification of the shock. Using the $χ^2$ statistic we find that a continuously softening spectrum is strongly preferred, in contrast to expectations. A hardening spectrum has about 1% probability to explain the HESS data, but then only if a hard cut-off at 50-100 TeV is imposed on the particle spectrum.