Related papers: A new look at the cosmic ray positron fraction
The positron fraction in cosmic rays was found to be steadily increasing in function of energy, above $\sim$10 GeV. This behaviour contradicts standard astrophysical mechanisms, in which positrons are secondary particles, produced in the…
Secondary positrons are produced by spallation of cosmic rays within the interstellar gas. Measurements have been typically expressed in terms of the positron fraction, which exhibits an increase above 10 GeV. Many scenarios have been…
The rapid rise in the cosmic ray positron fraction above 10 GeV, as measured by PAMELA and AMS, suggests the existence of nearby primary sources of high energy positrons, such as pulsars or annihilating/decaying dark matter. In contrast,…
The rise of the cosmic ray positron fraction with energy, as first observed with high confidence by PAMELA, implies that a large flux of high energy positrons has been recently (or is being currently) injected into the local volume of the…
Several cosmic ray experiments have measured the positron fraction up to few hundred GeV. Their data have revealed an excess of positrons above 10 GeV that is not consistent with the secondary production of these particles in the…
Measurements of cosmic-ray (CR) positron fraction by PAMELA and other experiments have found an excess above 10 GeV relative to the standard predictions for secondary production in the interstellar medium (ISM). Although the excess has been…
The large intensity of greater than 10 GeV positrons which apparently come from sources outside the Earth-Sun system observed recently by many spacecraft (PAMELA, FERMI, AMS2) is still a mystery with broad implications. In our attempts to…
Two years ago, the AMS collaboration released the most precise measurement of the cosmic ray positron flux. It confirms that pure secondary predictions fall below the data above 10 GeV, suggesting the presence of a primary component, e.g.…
Cosmic-ray positrons have long been considered a powerful probe of dark matter annihilation. In particular, myriad studies of the unexpected rise in the positron fraction have debated its dark matter or pulsar origins. In this paper, we…
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has released high-precision data for cosmic rays, and has verified an excess of positrons relative to expectations from cosmic ray interactions in the interstellar medium. An exciting and well-known…
We show that the recent AMS02 positron fraction measurement is consistent with a secondary origin for positrons, and does not require additional primary sources such as pulsars or dark matter. The measured positron fraction at high energy…
Antimatter cosmic-rays are used to probe new phenomena in physics, including dark matter annihilation. We use the cosmic-ray positron fraction spectrum by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, to search for such an annihilation signal in the…
The electron and positron cosmic rays puzzle has triggered a revolution in the field of astroparticle physics. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the unexpected rise of the positron fraction, observed by HEAT and PAMELA…
This review concentrates on the results obtained, over the last ten years, on the astrophysics of high-energy cosmic ray electrons and positrons. The anomalies, observed in the data of recent experiments (possible bump in the electron…
Recent results from the AMS-02 data have confirmed that the cosmic ray positron fraction increases with energy between 10 and 200GeV. This quantity should not exceed 50%, and it is hence expected that it will either converge towards 50% or…
Positrons are known to be produced in interactions between cosmic-ray nuclei and interstellar matter ("secondary production"). Positrons may, however, also be created by dark matter particle annihilations in the galactic halo or in the…
Recent results from the AMS-02 data have confirmed that the cosmic ray positron fraction increases with energy between 10 and 200GeV. This quantity should not exceed 50%, and it is hence expected that it will either converge towards 50% or…
Recent observations by PAMELA, Fermi-LAT, and AMS-02 have conclusively indicated a rise in the cosmic-ray positron fraction above 10 GeV, a feature which is impossible to mimic under the paradigm of secondary positron production with…
Despite significant efforts over the past decade, the origin of the cosmic ray positron excess has still not been unambiguously established. A popular class of candidate sources are pulsars or pulsar wind nebulae but these cannot also…
The flux of cosmic-ray high-energy positrons has recently been measured by AMS with unprecedented precision. This flux is well above the expectation from secondary positrons made by the observed fluxes of nuclear cosmic rays impinging on…