Related papers: Constraining positron emission from pulsar populat…
Pulsar halos are extended gamma-ray structures generated by electrons and positrons escaping from pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), considered a new class of gamma-ray sources. They are ideal indicators for cosmic-ray propagation in localized…
Extended gamma-ray emission, interpreted as halos formed by the inverse-Compton scattering of ambient photons by electron-positron pairs, is observed toward a number of middle-aged pulsars. The physical origin and actual commonness of the…
The flux of positrons and electrons ($e^+ + e^-$) has been measured by the $Fermi$ Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the energy range between 7 GeV and 2 TeV. We discuss a number of interpretations of Pass 8 $Fermi$-LAT $e^+ + e^-$ spectrum,…
Pulsars, or more generally rotation powered neutron stars, are excellent factories of antimatter in the Galaxy, in the form of pairs of electrons and positrons. Electrons are initially extracted from the surface of the star by the intense…
Pulsars are known to power winds of relativistic particles that can produce bright nebulae by interacting with the surrounding medium. These pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are observed in the radio, optical, x-rays and, in some cases, also at…
The AMS-02 collaboration has recently released data on the positron fraction $e^+/(e^-+e^+)$ up to energies of about 350 GeV. If one insists on interpreting the observed excess as a dark matter signal, then we find it is best described by a…
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…
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…
The local pulsar and its progenitor, SNR, can together accelerate the positron, electron and nuclei to very high energy. The famous excesses of positron(nuclei) above $20$($200$) GeV possibly come from such kind of local source. This hints…
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…
The AMS-02 detector is operating on the International Space Station since May 2011. More than 30 billion events have been collected by the instrument in the first two years of data taking. A precision measurement of the positron fraction…
We present a model of cosmic ray injection into the Galactic space based on recent gamma-ray observations of supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) by the Fermi Large Area Telescope and imaging atmospheric Cherenkov…
The data collected by ATIC, PPB-BETS, FERMI-LAT and HESS all indicate that there is an electron/positron excess in the cosmic ray energy spectrum above $\sim$ 100 GeV, although different instrumental teams do not agree on the detailed…
The excesses in the electron and positron spectra observed by many experiments, such as PAMELA and AMS-02, have sparked significant theoretical investigation. It is not easy to distinguish the two primary hypotheses dark matter…
A new population of neutron stars has emerged during the last decade: compact binary millisecond pulsars (CBMSPs). Because these pulsars and their companion stars are in tight orbits with typical separations of $10^{11}$ cm, their winds…
Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) we have imaged the fields around five promising pulsar candidates to search for radio pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). We have used the ATCA in its pulsar gating mode; this enables an image to…
We review properties of Galactic VHE sources detected at TeV energies. The number of associations between the VHE sources and pulsars has grown in recent years, making pulsar-wind nebulae the dominant population, although there is still a…
The hard X-ray synchrotron emission from pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) probes energetic particles, closely related to the pulsar injection power at the present time. INTEGRAL has disclosed the yet poorly known population of hard X-ray…
We revisit the model proposed earlier to account for the observed increase in the positron fraction in cosmic rays with increasing energy, in the light of new data from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) experiment. The model accounts…
The population of young, non-recycled pulsars with spin down energies Edot >10^35 erg/s is sampled predominantly at gamma-ray and radio wavelengths. A total of 137 such pulsars are known, with partial overlap between the sources detectable…