27 research outputs found
The Contribution of Fermi Gamma-Ray Pulsars to the local Flux of Cosmic-Ray Electrons and Positrons
We analyze the contribution of gamma-ray pulsars from the first Fermi-Large
Area Telescope (LAT) catalogue to the local flux of cosmic-ray electrons and
positrons (e+e-). We present new distance estimates for all Fermi gamma-ray
pulsars, based on the measured gamma-ray flux and pulse shape. We then estimate
the contribution of gamma-ray pulsars to the local e+e- flux, in the context of
a simple model for the pulsar e+e- emission. We find that 10 of the Fermi
pulsars potentially contribute significantly to the measured e+e- flux in the
energy range between 100 GeV and 1 TeV. Of the 10 pulsars, 2 are old EGRET
gamma-ray pulsars, 2 pulsars were discovered with radio ephemerides, and 6 were
discovered with the Fermi pulsar blind-search campaign. We argue that known
radio pulsars fall in regions of parameter space where the e+e- contribution is
predicted to be typically much smaller than from those regions where Fermi-LAT
pulsars exist. However, comparing the Fermi gamma-ray flux sensitivity to the
regions of pulsar parameter space where a significant e+e- contribution is
predicted, we find that a few known radio pulsars that have not yet been
detected by Fermi can also significantly contribute to the local e+e- flux if
(i) they are closer than 2 kpc, and if (ii) they have a characteristic age on
the order of one mega-year.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in JCA
Cosmic Ray Anomalies from the MSSM?
The recent positron excess in cosmic rays (CR) observed by the PAMELA
satellite may be a signal for dark matter (DM) annihilation. When these
measurements are combined with those from FERMI on the total () flux
and from PAMELA itself on the ratio, these and other results are
difficult to reconcile with traditional models of DM, including the
conventional mSUGRA version of Supersymmetry even if boosts as large as
are allowed. In this paper, we combine the results of a previously
obtained scan over a more general 19-parameter subspace of the MSSM with a
corresponding scan over astrophysical parameters that describe the propagation
of CR. We then ascertain whether or not a good fit to this CR data can be
obtained with relatively small boost factors while simultaneously satisfying
the additional constraints arising from gamma ray data. We find that a specific
subclass of MSSM models where the LSP is mostly pure bino and annihilates
almost exclusively into pairs comes very close to satisfying these
requirements. The lightest in this set of models is found to be
relatively close in mass to the LSP and is in some cases the nLSP. These models
lead to a significant improvement in the overall fit to the data by an amount
dof in comparison to the best fit without Supersymmetry
while employing boosts . The implications of these models for future
experiments are discussed.Comment: 57 pages, 31 figures, references adde
A Simple Representation of Three-Dimensional Molecular Structure
Statistical
and machine learning approaches predict drug-to-target
relationships from 2D small-molecule topology patterns. One might
expect 3D information to improve these calculations. Here we apply
the logic of the extended connectivity fingerprint (ECFP) to develop
a rapid, alignment-invariant 3D representation of molecular conformers,
the extended three-dimensional fingerprint (E3FP). By integrating
E3FP with the similarity ensemble approach (SEA), we achieve higher
precision-recall performance relative to SEA with ECFP on ChEMBL20
and equivalent receiver operating characteristic performance. We identify
classes of molecules for which E3FP is a better predictor of similarity
in bioactivity than is ECFP. Finally, we report novel drug-to-target
binding predictions inaccessible by 2D fingerprints and confirm three
of them experimentally with ligand efficiencies from 0.442–0.637
kcal/mol/heavy atom
Recommended from our members
Zebrafish behavioral profiling identifies multitarget antipsychotic-like compounds
Recommended from our members
Zebrafish behavioral profiling identifies multitarget antipsychotic-like compounds
Discriminating the source of high-energy positrons with AMS-02
We study the prospects for discriminating between the dark matter (DM) and pulsar origin of the PAMELA positron excess with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer AMS-02. We simulate the response of AMS-02 to positrons (and electrons) originating from DM annihilations, and determine the pulsar parameters (spin-down luminosity, distance and characteristic age) that produce a satisfactory fit to the mock AMS-02 data. It turns out that it is always possible to mimic a DM signal with pulsars. Although the fit in some cases requires values of spin-down luminosity and characteristic age different from those of known pulsars in the ATNF and Fermi-LAT catalogues, these catalogues are known to be incomplete, and therefore the pulsar interpretation can hardly be ruled out. We also show that if the positron excess is due to a single pulsar, it is always possible to find a DM candidate that provides a good fit to the mock AMS-02 data. The discrimination between the two scenarios will thus require a better knowledge of the underlying sources, or complementary data