The cosmic-ray positron energy spectrum measured by PAMELA
Abstract
Precision measurements of the positron component in the cosmic radiation provide important information about the propagation of cosmic rays and the nature of particle sources in our Galaxy. The satellite-borne experiment PAMELA has been used to make a new measurement of the cosmic-ray positron flux and fraction that extends previously published measurements up to 300 GeV in kinetic energy. The combined measurements of the cosmic-ray positron energy spectrum and fraction provide a unique tool to constrain interpretation models. During the recent solar minimum activity period from July 2006 to December 2009 approximately 24500 positrons were observed. The results cannot be easily reconciled with purely secondary production and additional sources of either astrophysical or exotic origin may be required.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1308.0133,
title = {The cosmic-ray positron energy spectrum measured by PAMELA},
author = {PAMELA Collaboration and O. Adriani and G. C. Barbarino and G. A. Bazilevskaya and R. Bellotti and A. Bianco and M. Boezio and E. A. Bogomolov and M. Bongi and V. Bonvicini 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 C. De Donato and C. De Santis and N. De Simone and V. Di Felice and V. Formato and A. M. Galper and A. V. Karelin and S. V. Koldashov and S. A. Koldobskiy and S. Y. Krutkov and A. N. Kvashnin and A. Leonov and V. Malakhov and L. Marcelli and M. Martucci and A. G. Mayorov and W. Menn and M. Merge' and V. V. Mikhailov and E. Mocchiutti and A. Monaco and N. Mori and R. Munini and G. Osteria and F. Palma and P. Papini and M. Pearce and P. Picozza and C. Pizzolotto and M. Ricci and S. B. Ricciarini and L. Rossetto and R. Sarkar and V. Scotti and M. Simon and R. Sparvoli and P. Spillantini and S. J. Stochaj and J. C. Stockton and Y. I. Stozhkov and A. Vacchi and E. Vannuccini and G. I. Vasilyev and S. A. Voronov and Y. T. Yurkin and G. Zampa and N. Zampa and V. G. Zverev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.0133},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
14 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. Corrected a typo in the flux units of Table 1