An Ab Initio Approach to Antiproton Modulation in the Inner Heliosphere

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Abstract Recent advances in the detection of cosmic-ray (CR) antiproton intensities at Earth have the potential to provide valuable new insights in the search for dark matter. As such, a fuller understanding of the modulation of these particles due to the influence of the Sun is of vital importance. Valuable insights can be gained through the study of galactic CR protons, as the transport parameters for these particles are theoretically expected to be the same as those for antiprotons, barring drift effects. As such, the present study develops a data-driven, 3D time-dependent ab initio model for the modulation of galactic CR protons in the region of the heliosphere dominated by the supersonic solar wind, which yields results in good agreement with spacecraft observations over several solar cycles when an observationally motivated expression for the differential intensity spectrum of these particles at the heliospheric termination shock is employed. This model is then applied to the study of solar-cycle-dependent antiproton modulation using two current estimates for the local interstellar differential intensities of these particles. This approach yields estimates of antiproton intensities at the heliospheric termination shock that are considerably lower than the proposed interstellar spectra, with the implication that a significant amount of antiproton modulation is expected to occur in the heliosheath.