New determination of the production cross section for secondary positrons and electrons in the Galaxy

Abstract

The cosmic-ray fluxes of electrons and positrons (e^{±}e±) are measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. To infer a precise interpretation of the production processes for e^{±}e± in our Galaxy, it is necessary to have an accurate description of the secondary component, produced by the interaction of cosmic-ray proton and helium with the interstellar medium atoms. We determine new analytical functions of the Lorentz invariant cross section for the production of e^±e± by fitting data from collider experiments. The total differential cross section d\sigma/dT_{e^±}(p+p→ e^±+X)dσ/dTe±(p+p→e±+X) is predicted with an uncertainty of about 5-7% in the energies relevant for AMS-02 positron flux. For further information about this work refer to [Phys. Rev. D 105, 123021 (2022)].