Search for spatial and temporary variations of galactic cosmic ray positrons in PAMELA experiment

AbstractThe PAMELA experiment is gathering data since 2006 on board the Resurs DK1 satellite (orbit with inclination 70.4°, the altitude 350-600km). The instrument consists magnetic spectrometer, silicon-tungsten imaging electromagnetic calorimeter, neutron detector and shower scintillator that gives possibility to measure electron and positron fluxes over wide energy range from hundreds MeVs to hundreds GeVs. Results of the experiment indicate the presence of a large flux of positron with respect to electrons in the CR spectrum above 10GeV. This excess might be originated through dark matter annihilation or in local astrophysical objects such as pulsars producing possible spatial and season variations. Electron and positron events have been analyzed searching for spatial and temporal variations from June 2006 till January 2014

The discovery of geomagnetically trapped cosmic ray antiprotons

The existence of a significant flux of antiprotons confined to Earth's magnetosphere has been considered in several theoretical works. These antiparticles are produced in nuclear interactions of energetic cosmic rays with the terrestrial atmosphere and accumulate in the geomagnetic field at altitudes of several hundred kilometers. A contribution from the decay of albedo antineutrons has been hypothesized in analogy to proton production by neutron decay, which constitutes the main source of trapped protons at energies above some tens of MeV. This Letter reports the discovery of an antiproton radiation belt around the Earth. The trapped antiproton energy spectrum in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region has been measured by the PAMELA experiment for the kinetic energy range 60-750 MeV. A measurement of the atmospheric sub-cutoff antiproton spectrum outside the radiation belts is also reported. PAMELA data show that the magnetospheric antiproton flux in the SAA exceeds the cosmic-ray antiproton flux by three orders of magnitude at the present solar minimum, and exceeds the sub-cutoff antiproton flux outside radiation belts by four orders of magnitude, constituting the most abundant source of antiprotons near the Earth