English

TeV Gamma Rays from Geminga and the Origin of the GeV Positron Excess

Astrophysics 2010-04-21 v4 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

The Geminga pulsar has long been one of the most intriguing MeV-GeV gamma-ray point sources. We examine the implications of the recent Milagro detection of extended, multi-TeV gamma-ray emission from Geminga, finding that this reveals the existence of an ancient, powerful cosmic-ray accelerator that can plausibly account for the multi-GeV positron excess that has evaded explanation. We explore a number of testable predictions for gamma-ray and electron/positron experiments (up to ~100 TeV) that can confirm the first "direct" detection of a cosmic-ray source.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.2784,
  title  = {TeV Gamma Rays from Geminga and the Origin of the GeV Positron Excess},
  author = {Hasan Yuksel and Matthew D. Kistler and Todor Stanev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.2784},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

4 pages and 3 figures; Minor revisions, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters