English

Constraining anisotropic diffusion between Geminga and Earth with the cosmic-ray electron and positron spectrum

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2024-09-04 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

The gamma-ray halo surrounding Geminga suggests a notable reduction in cosmic-ray diffusion. One potential explanation for this phenomenon is the projection effect of slow diffusion perpendicular to the average magnetic field (represented by the diffusion coefficient DD_\perp) within an anisotropic diffusion framework. In this context, the diffusion coefficient parallel to the mean field (DD_\parallel) may remain substantial, allowing electrons and positrons (e±e^\pm) generated by Geminga to effectively propagate towards Earth along magnetic field lines, potentially leading to an observable e±e^\pm flux. This study initially establishes the fundamental parameters of the anisotropic model based on the morphology and spectral observations of the Geminga halo, and subsequently forecasts the e±e^\pm flux generated by Geminga at Earth's location. Our findings indicate that the e+e+e^-+e^+ spectrum obtained by DAMPE can provide critical constraints on the anisotropic diffusion model: to ensure that the projected spectrum does not surpass the observational data, the Alfv\'en Mach number of the turbulent magnetic field (MAM_A) should not fall below 0.75, corresponding to D/D3D_\parallel/D_\perp\lesssim3 given D=DMA4D_\perp=D_\parallel M_A^4. This suggests that a substantial reduction in DD_\parallel relative to the Galactic average may still be necessary. Additionally, our analysis reveals that within the anisotropic diffusion framework, Geminga could generate a distinct peak around 1 TeV in the e+e+e^-+e^+ spectrum, potentially accounting for the anomalous 1.4 TeV excess tentatively detected by DAMPE.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.01653,
  title  = {Constraining anisotropic diffusion between Geminga and Earth with the cosmic-ray electron and positron spectrum},
  author = {Junji Xia and Xiaojun Bi and Kun Fang and Siming Liu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.01653},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

8 pages,6 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:32:16.489Z