Related papers: Understanding the cosmic ray positron flux
The Fermi Large Area Telescope has provided the measurement of the high energy (20 GeV to 1 TeV) cosmic ray electrons and positrons spectrum with unprecedented accuracy. This measurement represents a unique probe for studying the origin and…
Cosmic electrons with energies in the TeV range lose their energy rapidly through synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton processes, resulting in a relatively short lifetime (~ 10^5 years). They are only visible from comparatively nearby…
Measurements of cosmic rays by experiments such as ATIC, CREAM, and PAMELA indicate a hardening of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum at TeV energies. In our recent work (Thoudam & H\"orandel 2012a), we showed that the hardening can be due 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.…
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…
With experimental results of AMS on the spectra of cosmic ray (CR) $e^{-}$, $e^{+}$, $e^{-}+e^{+}$ and positron fraction, as well as new measurements of CR $e^{-}+e^{+}$ flux by HESS, one can better understand the CR lepton ($e^{-}$ and…
The cosmic-ray flux of positrons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. The hypothesis that pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) can significantly contribute to the excess of the positron ($e^+$) cosmic-ray…
The precise measurement of the spectrum of protons, the most abundant component of the cosmic radiation, is necessary to understand the source and acceleration of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. This work reports the measurement of the cosmic…
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…
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…
Recent observations of cosmic ray electrons from several instruments have revealed various degrees of deviation in the measured electron energy distribution from a simple power-law, in a form of an excess around TeV energies. An even more…
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 unexpected energy spectrum of the positron/electron ratio is interpreted astrophysically, with a possible exception of the 100-300 GeV range. The data indicate that this ratio, after a decline between $0.5-8$ GeV, rises steadily with a…
Observations of cosmic ray electrons have made great strides in the last decade and direct observations of the all-electron flux as well as separate electron and positron spectra are now available up to ~ 1 TeV. In this invited contribution…
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…
We present a novel calculation of the spectrum of electrons and positrons from random sources, supernova remnants and pulsars, distributed within the spiral arms of the Galaxy. The pulsar emissivity in terms of electron-positron pairs is…
Secondary cosmic ray fluxes are important probes of the propagation and interaction of high-energy particles in the Galaxy. Recent measurements of primary and secondary cosmic ray nuclei have revealed unexpected spectral features that…
The AMS-02 has just published the unprecedentedly precise measurement of the cosmic electron and positron spectra. In this paper we try to give a quantitative study on the AMS-02 results by a global fitting to the electron and positron…
Recent observations show that the cosmic ray nuclei spectra start to harden above 100 GeV, in contradiction with the conventional steady-state cosmic ray model. We had suggested that this anomaly is due to the propagation effect of cosmic…
Recent data from CREAM seem to confirm early suggestions that primary cosmic ray (CR) spectra at few TeV/nucleon are harder than in the 10-100 GeV range. Also, helium and heavier nuclei spectra appear systematically harder than the proton…