Positron Flux Research Articles

A mini linac based positron source

AbstractWe have installed in Saclay a demonstration setup for an intense positron source in November 2008. It is based on a compact 6 MeV electron linac to produce positrons via pair production on a tungsten target. A relatively high current of 0.15 mA compensates the low energy, which is below the neutron activation threshold. The expected production rate is 4x1011 fast positrons per second. A set of coils is arranged to select the fast positrons from the diffracted electron beam in order to study the possibility to use a rare gas cryogenic moderator away from the main flux of particles. A first part of the commissioning of the linac has been performed. First attempts at measuring the fast positron flux are underway. This setup is part of a project to demonstrate the feasibility of an experiment to produce the H+ ion for a free fall measurement of neutral antihydrogen (H). Its small size and cost could be of interest for a university laboratory or industry for materials science applications. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Intermediate Mass Black Holes and Nearby Dark Matter Point Sources: A Critical Reassessment

Dark matter (DM) "minispikes" around intermediate mass black holes are sometimes quoted as one of the most promising targets for indirect DM searches. Here, we stress that existing cosmic ray data place severe constraints on the possibility to detect DM annihilation signals from these objects in gamma rays; observational prospects for neutrinos or charged cosmic rays seem even worse. Similar bounds severely constrain the possibility that the excess in the cosmic ray positron or electron flux recently reported by PAMELA/ATIC could be due to a nearby point source like a DM clump or minispike.

Constraining the dark matter annihilation cross-section with Cherenkov telescope observations of dwarf galaxies

The presence of dark matter in the halo of our galaxy could be revealed through indirect detection of annihilation products. Dark matter annihilation is one of the possible interpretations of the recent measured excesses in positron and electron fluxes, once boost factors of the order of 10^3 or more are taken into account. Such boost factors are actually achievable through the velocity-dependent Sommerfeld enhancement of the annihilation cross-section. Here we study the expected gamma-ray flux from two local dwarf galaxies for which air Cerenkov measurements are available, namely Draco and Sagittarius. We use velocity dispersion measurements to model the dark matter halos of the dwarfs, and the results of numerical simulations to model the presence of an associated population of subhalos. We incorporate the Sommerfeld enhancement of the annihilation cross-section. We compare our predictions with observations of Draco and Sagittarius performed by MAGIC and HESS, respectively. We also compare our results with the sensitivities of Fermi and of the future Cherenkov Telescope Array. We find that the boost factor due to the Sommerfeld enhancement is already constrained by the MAGIC and HESS data, with enhancements greater than 5 x 10^4 being excluded. While Fermi will not be able to detect gamma-rays from the dwarf galaxies s even with the most optimistic Sommerfeld effect, we show that the Cherenkov Telescope Array will be able to test enhancements greater than 1.5 x 10^3.

Pulsars versus dark matter interpretation of ATIC/PAMELA

In this paper, we study the flux of electrons and positrons injected by pulsars and by annihilating or decaying dark matter in the context of recent ATIC, PAMELA, Fermi, and HESS data. We review the flux from a single pulsar and derive the flux from a distribution of pulsars. We point out that the particle acceleration in the pulsar magnetosphere is insufficient to explain the observed excess of electrons and positrons with energy $E\ensuremath{\sim}1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ and one has to take into account an additional acceleration of electrons at the termination shock between the pulsar and its wind nebula. We show that at energies less than a few hundred GeV, the expected flux from a continuous distribution of pulsars provides a good approximation to the expected flux from pulsars in the Australia Telescope National Facility catalog. At higher energies, we demonstrate that the electron/positron flux measured at the Earth will be dominated by a few young nearby pulsars, and therefore the spectrum would contain bumplike features. We argue that the presence of such features at high energies would strongly suggest a pulsar origin of the anomalous contribution to electron and positron fluxes. The absence of features either points to a dark matter origin or constrains pulsar models in such a way that the fluctuations are suppressed. Also we derive that the features can be partially smeared due to spatial variation of the energy losses during propagation.

Probing gravitino dark matter with PAMELA and Fermi

We analyse the cosmic-ray signatures of decaying gravitino dark matter in a model-independent way based on an operator analysis. Thermal leptogenesis and universal boundary conditions at the GUT scale restrict the gravitino mass to be below 600 GeV. Electron and positron fluxes from gravitino decays, together with the standard GALPROP background, cannot explain both the PAMELA positron fraction and the electron + positron flux recently measured by Fermi LAT. For gravitino dark matter, the observed fluxes require astrophysical sources. The measured antiproton flux allows for a sizable contribution of decaying gravitinos to the gamma-ray spectrum, in particular a line at an energy below 300 GeV. Future measurements of the gamma-ray flux will provide important constraints on possible signatures of decaying gravitino dark matter at the LHC.

Galactic signatures of decaying dark matter

If dark matter decays into electrons and positrons, it can affect Galactic radio emissions and the local cosmic ray fluxes. We propose a new, more general analysis of constraints on dark matter. The constraints can be obtained for any decaying dark matter model by convolving the specific dark matter decay spectrum with a response function. We derive this response function from full-sky radio surveys at 408 MHz, 1.42 GHz and 23 GHz, as well as from the positron flux recently reported by PAMELA. We discuss the influence of astrophysical uncertainties on the response function, such as from propagation and from the profiles of the dark matter and the Galactic magnetic field. As an application, we find that some widely used dark matter decay scenarios can be ruled out under modest assumptions.

Cosmic ray lepton puzzle in the light of cosmologicalN-body simulations

The PAMELA, ATIC, and Fermi collaborations have recently reported an excess in the cosmic ray positron and electron fluxes. These lepton anomalies might be related to cold dark matter particles annihilating within a nearby dark matter clump. We outline regions of the parameter space for both the dark matter subhalo and particle model, where data from the different experiments are reproduced. We then confront this interpretation of the data with the results of the cosmological $N$-body simulation Via Lactea II. Having a sizable clump (${V}_{\mathrm{max}}=9\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{km}\text{ }{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$) at a distance of only 1.2 kpc could explain the PAMELA excess, but such a configuration has a probability of only 0.37%. Reproducing also the ATIC bump would require a very large, nearby subhalo, which is extremely unlikely ($p\ensuremath{\simeq}3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$). It is even less probable for the smaller Fermi bump to be caused by the presence of such an object. In either case, we predict Fermi will detect the gamma-ray emission from the subhalo. We conclude that under canonical assumptions, the cosmic ray lepton anomalies are unlikely to originate from a nearby cold dark matter subhalo.

Constraints on leptonically annihilating dark matter from reionization and extragalactic gamma background

The PAMELA, Fermi and HESS experiments (PFH) have shown anomalous excesses in the cosmic positron and electron fluxes. A very exciting possibility is that those excesses are due to annihilating dark matter (DM). In this paper we calculate constraints on leptonically annihilating DM using observational data on diffuse extragalactic gamma-ray background and measurements of the optical depth to the last-scattering surface, and compare those with the PFH favored region in the m_{DM} - <\sigma_A v> plane. Having specified the detailed form of the energy input with PYTHIA Monte Carlo tools we solve the radiative transfer equation which allows us to determine the amount of energy being absorbed by the cosmic medium and also the amount left over for the diffuse gamma background. We find that the constraints from the optical depth measurements are able to rule out the PFH favored region fully for the \tau^{-}+\tau^{+} annihilation channel and almost fully for the \mu^{-}+\mu^{+} annihilation channel. It turns out that those constraints are quite robust with almost no dependence on low redshift clustering boost. The constraints from the gamma-ray background are sensitive to the assumed halo concentration model and, for the power law model, rule out the PFH favored region for all leptonic annihilation channels. We also find that it is possible to have models that fully ionize the Universe at low redshifts. However, those models produce too large free electron fractions at z > ~100 and are in conflict with the optical depth measurements. Also, the magnitude of the annihilation cross-section in those cases is larger than suggested by the PFH data.

Origin of the Positron Excess in Cosmic Rays

We show that the positron excess measured by the PAMELA experiment in the region between 10 and 100 GeV may well be a natural consequence of the standard scenario for the origin of Galactic cosmic rays. The "excess" arises because of positrons created as secondary products of hadronic interactions inside the sources, but the crucial physical ingredient which leads to a natural explanation of the positron flux is the fact that the secondary production takes place in the same region where cosmic rays are being accelerated. Therefore secondary positrons (and electrons) participate in the acceleration process and turn out to have a very flat spectrum, which is responsible, after propagation in the Galaxy, for the observed positron excess. This effect cannot be avoided though its strength depends on the values of the environmental parameters during the late stages of evolution of supernova remnants.

Absolute electron and positron fluxes from PAMELA/Fermi and dark matter

We extract the positron and electron fluxes in the energy range 10–100 GeV by combining the recent data from PAMELA and Fermi LAT. The absolute positron and electron fluxes thus obtained are found to obey the power laws: E−2.65 and E−3.06 respectively, which can be confirmed by the upcoming data from PAMELA. The positron flux appears to indicate an excess at energies E ≳ 50 GeV even if the uncertainty in the secondary positron flux is added to the Galactic positron background. This leaves enough motivation for considering new physics, such as annihilation or decay of dark matter, as the origin of positron excess in the cosmic rays.

ATIC, PAMELA, HESS, and Fermi data and nearby dark matter subhalos

We study the local flux of electrons and positrons from annihilating dark matter (DM), and investigate how its spectrum depends on the choice of DM model and inhomogeneities in the DM distribution. Below a cutoff energy, the flux is expected to have a universal power-law form with an index $n\ensuremath{\approx}\ensuremath{-}2$. The cutoff energy and the behavior of the flux near the cutoff is model dependent. The dependence on the DM host halo profile may be significant at energies $El100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ and leads to softening of the flux $nl\ensuremath{-}2$. There may be additional features at high energies due to the presence of local clumps of DM, especially for models in which the Sommerfeld effect boosts subhalo luminosities. In general, the flux from a nearby clump gives rise to a harder spectrum of electrons and positrons, with an index $ng\ensuremath{-}2$. Using the Via Lactea II simulation, we estimate the probability of such subhalo effects in a generic Sommerfeld-enhanced model to be at least 4%, and possibly as high as 15% if subhalos below the simulation's resolution limit are accounted for. We discuss the consequences of these results for the interpretation of the ATIC, PAMELA, HESS, and Fermi data, as well as for future experiments.

Dark matter and pulsar signals for Fermi LAT, PAMELA, ATIC, HESS and WMAP data

We analyze new diffuse gamma-ray data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which do not confirm an excess in the EGRET data at galactic mid-latitudes, in combination with measurements of electron and positron fluxes from PAMELA, Fermi and HESS within the context of three possible sources: dark matter (DM) annihilation or decay into charged leptons, and a continuum distribution of pulsars. We allow for variations in the backgrounds, consider several DM halo profiles, and account for systematic uncertainties in data where possible. We find that all three scenarios represent the data well. The pulsar description holds for a wide range of injection energy spectra. We compare with ATIC data and the WMAP haze where appropriate, but do not fit these data since the former are discrepant with Fermi data and the latter are subject to large systematic uncertainties. We show that for cusped halo profiles, Fermi could observe a spectacular gamma-ray signal of DM annihilation from the galactic center while seeing no excess at mid-latitudes.

High energy cosmic rays from decaying supersymmetric Dark Matter

Motivated by the recent PAMELA and ATIC results, we calculate the electron and positron fluxes from the decay of lightest-superparticle (LSP) dark matter. We assume that the LSP is the dominant component of dark matter, and consider the case that the R-parity is very weakly violated so that the lifetime of the LSP becomes of the order of 10^26 sec. We will see that, with such a choice of the lifetime, the cosmic-ray electron and positron from the decay can be the source of the anomalous electron and positron fluxes observed by PAMELA and ATIC. We consider the possibilities that the LSP is the gravitino, the lightest neutralino, and scalar neutrino, and discuss how the resultant fluxes depend on the dark-matter model. We also discuss the fluxes of gamma-ray and anti-proton, and show that those fluxes can be consistent with the observed value in the parameter region where the PAMELA and ATIC anomalies are explained.

PAMELA/ATIC anomaly from exotic mediated dark matter decay

We discuss dark matter decay mediated by exotically charged particles (exotics) in a supersymmetric model with two dark matter (DM) components: One is the (bino-like) lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) \chi, and the other is a newly introduced meta-stable neutral singlet $N$. $N$ decays to \chi e^+e^- via a dimension 6 operator induced by a penguin-type one loop diagram with the life time of 10^{26} sec., explaining energetic cosmic e^\pm excess observed recently by PAMELA and ATIC/PPB-BETS. The superheavy masses of exotics (\sim 10^{15-16} GeV) are responsible for the longevity of $N$. The superpartner of $N$ develops the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of order TeV so that the DM $N$ achieves the desired mass of 2 TeV. By the VEV, the U(1)_R symmetry is broken to the discrete Z_2 symmetry, which is identified with the matter parity in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). Since we have the two DM components, even extremely small amount of $N$ [O(10^{-10}) < (n_N/n_\chi)] could account for the observed positron flux with relatively light exotics' masses [10^{12} GeV < M_{exo.} < 10^{16} GeV].

Galactic secondary positron flux at the Earth

Context. 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 proposed to explain this feature, among them some additional primary positrons originating from dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy. Aims. The PAMELA satellite has provided high quality data that has enabled high accuracy statistical analyses to be made, showing that the increase in the positron fraction extends up to about 100 GeV. It is therefore of paramount importance to constrain theoretically the expected secondary positron flux to interpret the observations in an accurate way. Methods. We focus on calculating the secondary positron flux by using and comparing different up-to-date nuclear cross-sections and by considering an independent model of cosmic ray propagation. We carefully study the origins of the theoretical uncertainties in the positron flux. Results. We find the secondary positron flux to be reproduced well by the available observations, and to have theoretical uncertainties that we quantify to be as large as about one order of magnitude. We also discuss the positron fraction issue and find that our predictions may be consistent with the data taken before PAMELA. For PAMELA data, we find that an excess is probably present after considering uncertainties in the positron flux, although its amplitude depends strongly on the assumptions made in relation to the electron flux. By fitting the current electron data, we show that when considering a soft electron spectrum, the amplitude of the excess might be far lower than usually claimed. Conclusions. We provide fresh insights that may help to explain the positron data with or without new physical model ingredients. PAMELA observations and the forthcoming AMS-02 mission will allow stronger constraints to be aplaced on the cosmic-ray transport parameters, and are likely to reduce drastically the theoretical uncertainties.

Decaying gravitino dark matter and an upper bound on the gluino mass

We show that, if decaying gravitino dark matter is responsible for the PAMELA and ATIC/PPB-BETS anomalies in the cosmic-ray electron and positron fluxes, both reheating temperature and the gluino mass are constrained from above. In particular, the gluino mass is likely within the reach of LHC, if thermal leptogenesis is the source of the observed baryon asymmetry.

Dark matter annihilation rates with velocity-dependent annihilation cross sections

The detection of byproducts from particle annihilations in galactic halos would provide important information about the nature of the dark matter. Observational evidence for a local excess of high-energy positrons has motivated recent models with an additional interaction between dark matter particles that can result in a Sommerfeld enhancement to the cross section for annihilation. In such models, the cross section becomes velocity-dependent and may enhance the dark matter annihilation rate in the solar neighborhood relative to the rate in the early universe sufficiently to source observed fluxes of high-energy positrons. We demonstrate that, for particle interaction cross sections that increase with decreasing velocity, the kinematical structures of dark matter halos with interior density profiles shallower than isothermal, such as Navarro-Frenk-White or Einasto halos, may induce a further enhancement owing to the position-dependent velocity distribution. We provide specific examples for the increase in the annihilation rate with a cross section enhanced by the Sommerfeld effect. In dark matter halos like that of the Milky Way and Local Group dwarf galaxies, the effective cross section at the halo center can be significantly larger than its local value. The additional enhancement owing to halo kinematics depends upon the parameters of any model, but is a prediction of certain models aimed at explaining measured positron fluxes and can exceed an order of magnitude.

Nambu-Goldstone dark matter and cosmic ray electron and positron excess

We propose a model of dark matter identified with a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson in the dynamical supersymmetry breaking sector in a gauge mediation scenario. The dark matter particles annihilate via a below-threshold narrow resonance into a pair of R-axions each of which subsequently decays into a pair of light leptons. The Breit-Wigner enhancement explains the excess electron and positron fluxes reported in the recent cosmic ray experiments PAMELA, ATIC and PPB-BETS without postulating an overdensity in halo, and the limit on anti-proton flux from PAMELA is naturally evaded.

Cosmic-ray positron from superparticle dark matter and the PAMELA anomaly

Motivated by the anomalous positron flux recently reported by the PAMELA Collaboration, we study the cosmic-ray positron produced by the pair annihilation and the decay of superparticle dark matter. We calculate the cosmic-ray positron flux and discuss implications of the PAMELA data. We show that the positron excess observed by the PAMELA can be explained with some of the superparticle dark matter.

Cosmic rays from dark matter annihilation and big-bang nucleosynthesis

Recent measurements of cosmic-ray electron and positron fluxes by PAMELA and ATIC experiments may indicate the existence of annihilating dark matter with large annihilation cross section. We show that the dark matter annihilation in the big-bang nucleosynthesis epoch affects the light element abundances, and it gives stringent constraints on such annihilating dark matter scenarios.