New Constraints on the Highest-Energy Cosmic-Ray Electrons and Positrons
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2009-12-03 v1 Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Abstract
At energies above a few TeV, no measurements of the cosmic-ray electron spectrum exist yet. By considering the similarity of air showers induced by electrons and gamma rays as seen by ground-based arrays, we use published limits on isotropic gamma-ray fluxes to place first constraints on the >10 TeV electron spectrum. We demonstrate that, due the proximity of known sources, the flux of such electrons (and positrons) can be large. We show how these smoothly connect to lower-energy positrons measured by PAMELA and relate to exciting new indications from Fermi.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0912.0264,
title = {New Constraints on the Highest-Energy Cosmic-Ray Electrons and Positrons},
author = {Matthew D. Kistler and Hasan Yuksel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.0264},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures