14,850 research outputs found
Galactic secondary positron flux at the Earth
Secondary positrons are produced by spallation of cosmic rays within the
interstellar gas. Measurements have been typically expressed in terms of the
positron fraction, which exhibits an increase above 10 GeV. Many scenarios have
been proposed to explain this feature, among them some additional primary
positrons originating from dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy. The PAMELA
satellite has provided high quality data that has enabled high accuracy
statistical analyses to be made, showing that the increase in the positron
fraction extends up to about 100 GeV. It is therefore of paramount importance
to constrain theoretically the expected secondary positron flux to interpret
the observations in an accurate way. We find the secondary positron flux to be
reproduced well by the available observations, and to have theoretical
uncertainties that we quantify to be as large as about one order of magnitude.
We also discuss the positron fraction issue and find that our predictions may
be consistent with the data taken before PAMELA. For PAMELA data, we find that
an excess is probably present after considering uncertainties in the positron
flux, although its amplitude depends strongly on the assumptions made in
relation to the electron flux. By fitting the current electron data, we show
that when considering a soft electron spectrum, the amplitude of the excess
might be far lower than usually claimed. We provide fresh insights that may
help to explain the positron data with or without new physical model
ingredients. PAMELA observations and the forthcoming AMS-02 mission will allow
stronger constraints to be aplaced on the cosmic--ray transport parameters, and
are likely to reduce drastically the theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. The recent PAMELA data on the positron fraction
(arXiv:0810.4995) have been included and the ensuing discussion has been
extended. Accepted version in A&
Positrons from dark matter annihilation in the galactic halo: uncertainties
Indirect detection signals from dark matter annihilation are studied in the
positron channel. We discuss in detail the positron propagation inside the
galactic medium: we present novel solutions of the diffusion and propagation
equations and we focus on the determination of the astrophysical uncertainties
which affect the positron dark matter signal. We show that, especially in the
low energy tail of the positron spectra at Earth, the uncertainty is sizeable
and we quantify the effect. Comparison of our predictions with current
available and foreseen experimental data are derived.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Proc. of the 30th International Cosmic Ray
Conference, July 3 - 11, 2007, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico (ICRC07
Positrons from dark matter annihilation in the galactic halo: theoretical uncertainties
Indirect detection signals from dark matter annihilation are studied in the
positron channel. We discuss in detail the positron propagation inside the
galactic medium: we present novel solutions of the diffusion and propagation
equations and we focus on the determination of the astrophysical uncertainties
which affect the positron dark matter signal. We find dark matter scenarios and
propagation models that nicely fit existing data on the positron fraction.
Finally, we present predictions both on the positron fraction and on the flux
for already running or planned space experiments, concluding that they have the
potential to discriminate a possible signal from the background and, in some
cases, to distinguish among different astrophysical propagation models.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures. A few comments and references adde
The origins of Causality Violations in Force Free Simulations of Black Hole Magnetospheres
Recent simulations of force-free, degenerate (ffde) black hole magnetospheres
indicate that the fast mode radiated from (or near) the event horizon can
modify the global potential difference in the poloidal direction orthogonal to
the magnetic field, V, in a black hole magnetosphere. There is a fundamental
contradiction in a wave that alters V coming from near the horizon. The
background fields in ffde satisfy the ``ingoing wave condition'' near the
horizon (that arises from the requirement that all matter is ingoing at the
event horizon), yet outgoing waves are radiated from this region in the
simulation. Studying the properties of the waves in the simulations are useful
tools to this end. It is shown that regularity of the stress-energy tensor in a
freely falling frame requires that the outgoing (as viewed globally) waves near
the event horizon are redshifted away and are ineffectual at changing V. It is
also concluded that waves in massless MHD (ffde) are extremely inaccurate
depictions of waves in a tenuous MHD plasma, near the event horizon, as a
consequence black hole gravity. Any analysis based on ffde near the event
horizon is seriously flawed.Comment: 9 pages to appear in ApJ Letter
Interpretation of AMS-02 electrons and positrons data
We perform a combined analysis of the recent AMS-02 data on electrons,
positrons, electrons plus positrons and positron fraction, in a self-consistent
framework where we realize a theoretical modeling of all the astrophysical
components that can contribute to the observed fluxes in the whole energy
range. The primary electron contribution is modeled through the sum of an
average flux from distant sources and the fluxes from the local supernova
remnants in the Green catalog. The secondary electron and positron fluxes
originate from interactions on the interstellar medium of primary cosmic rays,
for which we derive a novel determination by using AMS-02 proton and helium
data. Primary positrons and electrons from pulsar wind nebulae in the ATNF
catalog are included and studied in terms of their most significant (while
loosely known) properties and under different assumptions (average contribution
from the whole catalog, single dominant pulsar, a few dominant pulsars). We
obtain a remarkable agreement between our various modeling and the AMS-02 data
for all types of analysis, demonstrating that the whole AMS-02 leptonic data
admit a self-consistent interpretation in terms of astrophysical contributions.Comment: 33 pages, 26 figures and 4 tables, v2: accepted for publication in
JCAP, minor changes relative to v
New results on source and diffusion spectral features of Galactic cosmic rays: I- B/C ratio
In a previous study (Maurin et al., 2001), we explored the set of parameters
describing diffusive propagation of cosmic rays (galactic convection,
reacceleration, halo thickness, spectral index and normalization of the
diffusion coefficient), and we identified those giving a good fit to the
measured B/C ratio. This study is now extended to take into account a sixth
free parameter, namely the spectral index of sources. We use an updated version
of our code where the reacceleration term comes from standard minimal
reacceleration models. The goal of this paper is to present a general view of
the evolution of the goodness of fit to B/C data with the propagation
parameters. In particular, we find that, unlike the well accepted picture, and
in accordance with our previous study, a Kolmogorov-like power spectrum for
diffusion is strongly disfavored. Rather, the analysis points towards
along with source spectra index . Two
distinct energy dependences are used for the source spectra: the usual
power-law in rigidity and a law modified at low energy, the second choice being
only slightly preferred. We also show that the results are not much affected by
a different choice for the diffusion scheme. Finally, we compare our findings
to recent works, using other propagation models. This study will be further
refined in a companion paper, focusing on the fluxes of cosmic ray nuclei.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, accepted in A&
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