THE ENERGY-SPECTRUM OF COSMIC-RAY PROTONS IN THE LOCAL INTERSTELLAR-MEDIUM

A number of analyses of cosmic gamma ray data from the Compton Gamma R ay Observatory have found that the energy spectra are flatter than wou ld have been expected if the spectra of protons in the producing regio ns were of the same shape as that measured at earth. Although it is tr ue that technical artifacts could be responsible a variety of argument s - to be advanced here - make us conclude that the effect is probably genuine. Some implications of the implied spectral variations over th e local region of the interstellar medium are discussed.