A statistical procedure for the identification of positrons in the PAMELA experiment
Abstract
The PAMELA satellite experiment has measured the cosmic-ray positron fraction between 1.5 GeV and 100 GeV. The need to reliably discriminate between the positron signal and proton background has required the development of an ad hoc analysis procedure. In this paper, a method for positron identification is described and its stability and capability to yield a correct background estimate is shown. The analysis includes new experimental data, the application of three different fitting techniques for the background sample and an estimate of systematic uncertainties due to possible inaccuracies in the background selection. The new experimental results confirm both solar modulation effects on cosmic-rays with low rigidities and an anomalous positron abundance above 10 GeV.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1001.3522,
title = {A statistical procedure for the identification of positrons in the PAMELA experiment},
author = {O. Adriani and G. C. Barbarino and G. A. Bazilevskaya and R. Bellotti and M. Boezio and E. A. Bogomolov and L. Bonechi and M. Bongi and V. Bonvicini and S. Borisov and S. Bottai and A. Bruno and F. Cafagna and D. Campana and R. Carbone and P. Carlson and M. Casolino and G. Castellini and L. Consiglio and M. P. De Pascale and C. De Santis and N. De Simone and V. Di Felice and A. M. Galper and W. Gillard and L. Grishantseva and P. Hofverberg and G. Jerse and S. V. Koldashov and S. Y. Krutkov and A. N. Kvashnin and A. Leonov and V. Malvezzi and L. Marcelli and W. Menn and V. V. Mikhailov and E. Mocchiutti and A. Monaco and N. Mori and N. Nikonov and G. Osteria and P. Papini and M. Pearce and P. Picozza and M. Ricci and S. B. Ricciarini and L. Rossetto and M. Simon and R. Sparvoli and P. Spillantini and Y. I. Stozhkov and A. Vacchi and E. Vannuccini and G. Vasilyev and S. A. Voronov and J. Wu and Y. T. Yurkin and G. Zampa and N. Zampa and V. G. Zverev and D. Marinucci},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1001.3522},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
27 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables