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    Hadronic cosmic-ray interactions in molecular clouds: Gamma-ray, neutrino, and secondary particle fluxes from a full six-species nuclear composition

    Luiz A. Stuani Pereira1,2,* and Luan Torres3,†

    • *Contact author: luizstuani@uaf.ufcg.edu.br
    • †Contact author: luantorres@discente.ufg.br

    Phys. Rev. D 114, 043074 – Published 31 August, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2crw-p17x

    Abstract

    We present a geant4 Monte Carlo simulation of cosmic-ray (CR) hadronic interactions in a spherical molecular cloud (∼5400M⊙, 13 concentric shells, r−1.2 density profile) using six primary CR species, protons, alpha particles, carbon, oxygen, silicon, and iron, drawn from galprop-helmod local interstellar spectra over 1  GeV nuc−1 to 1  PeV nuc−1, the hadronic interaction regime in which pion production and nuclear spallation dominate the secondary particle output. We compute, for the first time within this framework, radial energy deposition profiles, per-layer secondary production rates, and the differential physical flux of all emerging stable secondaries for the full nuclear CR composition. Energy deposition scales as Z2, with the secondary cascade dominating ≥92% of the deposited energy in the dense core for all species. Alpha particles produce the highest integrated gamma-ray flux (0.125  cm−2 s−1 sr−1 above 100 MeV), followed by protons (6.71×10−2  cm−2 s−1 sr−1); together, they account for ≈96% of the total emerging gamma-ray and neutrino fluxes. A robust composition-diagnostic signature emerges in the neutrino sector: the νe/ν¯e ratio above 100 MeV decreases from ≈6.4 for protons, driven by the π+/π−≈8–11 charge asymmetry, to ≈2.8 for N=Z nuclei (C, O, Si), directly encoding the isospin content of the primary CR beam in an observable flux ratio. Secondary nuclear clusters (d, t, He3, α, and heavier ions up to Z=26) emerge exclusively for nuclei heavier than protons, contributing at the ≈32% level of the secondary proton flux for light clusters, while heavy-ion fragments remain 1 to 2 orders of magnitude below the secondary proton channel.

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