On possible interpretations of the high energy electron–positron spectrum measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope
Abstract
The Fermi-LAT experiment recently reported high precision measurements of the spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons-plus-positrons (CRE) between 20 GeV and 1 TeV. The spectrum shows no prominent spectral features, and is significantly harder than that inferred from several previous experiments. In this paper, we discuss several interpretations of the Fermi results based either on a single large scale Galactic CRE component or by invoking additional electron–positron primary sources, e.g. nearby pulsars or particle dark matter annihilation. We show that while the reported Fermi-LAT data alone can be interpreted in terms of a single component scenario, when combined with other complementary experimental results, specifically the CRE spectrum measured by H.E.S.S. and especially the positron fraction reported by PAMELA between 1 and 100 GeV, that class of models fails to provide a consistent interpretation. Rather, we find that several combinations of parameters, involving both the pulsar and dark matter scenarios, allow a consistent description of those results. Finally, we also briefly discuss the possibility of discriminating between the pulsar and dark matter interpretations by looking for a possible anisotropy in the CRE flux.
- Authors:
- more »
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- Contributing Org.:
- Fermi LAT Collaboration
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1357437
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Astroparticle Physics
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 32; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0927-6505
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Cosmic ray electrons and positrons; Pulsars; Dark-matter; Fermi-LAT
Citation Formats
Grasso, D., Profumo, S., Strong, A. W., Baldini, L., Bellazzini, R., Bloom, E. D., Bregeon, J., Di Bernardo, G., Gaggero, D., Giglietto, N., Kamae, T., Latronico, L., Longo, F., Mazziotta, M. N., Moiseev, A. A., Morselli, A., Ormes, J. F., Pesce-Rollins, M., Pohl, M., Razzano, M., Sgro, C., Spandre, G., and Stephens, T. E. On possible interpretations of the high energy electron–positron spectrum measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. United States: N. p., 2009.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2009.07.003.
Grasso, D., Profumo, S., Strong, A. W., Baldini, L., Bellazzini, R., Bloom, E. D., Bregeon, J., Di Bernardo, G., Gaggero, D., Giglietto, N., Kamae, T., Latronico, L., Longo, F., Mazziotta, M. N., Moiseev, A. A., Morselli, A., Ormes, J. F., Pesce-Rollins, M., Pohl, M., Razzano, M., Sgro, C., Spandre, G., & Stephens, T. E. On possible interpretations of the high energy electron–positron spectrum measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2009.07.003
Grasso, D., Profumo, S., Strong, A. W., Baldini, L., Bellazzini, R., Bloom, E. D., Bregeon, J., Di Bernardo, G., Gaggero, D., Giglietto, N., Kamae, T., Latronico, L., Longo, F., Mazziotta, M. N., Moiseev, A. A., Morselli, A., Ormes, J. F., Pesce-Rollins, M., Pohl, M., Razzano, M., Sgro, C., Spandre, G., and Stephens, T. E. Sat .
"On possible interpretations of the high energy electron–positron spectrum measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2009.07.003. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1357437.
@article{osti_1357437,
title = {On possible interpretations of the high energy electron–positron spectrum measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope},
author = {Grasso, D. and Profumo, S. and Strong, A. W. and Baldini, L. and Bellazzini, R. and Bloom, E. D. and Bregeon, J. and Di Bernardo, G. and Gaggero, D. and Giglietto, N. and Kamae, T. and Latronico, L. and Longo, F. and Mazziotta, M. N. and Moiseev, A. A. and Morselli, A. and Ormes, J. F. and Pesce-Rollins, M. and Pohl, M. and Razzano, M. and Sgro, C. and Spandre, G. and Stephens, T. E.},
abstractNote = {The Fermi-LAT experiment recently reported high precision measurements of the spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons-plus-positrons (CRE) between 20 GeV and 1 TeV. The spectrum shows no prominent spectral features, and is significantly harder than that inferred from several previous experiments. In this paper, we discuss several interpretations of the Fermi results based either on a single large scale Galactic CRE component or by invoking additional electron–positron primary sources, e.g. nearby pulsars or particle dark matter annihilation. We show that while the reported Fermi-LAT data alone can be interpreted in terms of a single component scenario, when combined with other complementary experimental results, specifically the CRE spectrum measured by H.E.S.S. and especially the positron fraction reported by PAMELA between 1 and 100 GeV, that class of models fails to provide a consistent interpretation. Rather, we find that several combinations of parameters, involving both the pulsar and dark matter scenarios, allow a consistent description of those results. Finally, we also briefly discuss the possibility of discriminating between the pulsar and dark matter interpretations by looking for a possible anisotropy in the CRE flux.},
doi = {10.1016/j.astropartphys.2009.07.003},
journal = {Astroparticle Physics},
number = 2,
volume = 32,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Jul 11 00:00:00 EDT 2009},
month = {Sat Jul 11 00:00:00 EDT 2009}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
The Most Likely Sources of High‐Energy Cosmic‐Ray Electrons in Supernova Remnants
journal, January 2004
- Kobayashi, T.; Komori, Y.; Yoshida, K.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 601, Issue 1
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station: Part I – results from the test flight on the space shuttle
journal, August 2002
- Aguilar, M.; Alcaraz, J.; Allaby, J.
- Physics Reports, Vol. 366, Issue 6
Cosmic-Ray Propagation and Interactions in the Galaxy
journal, November 2007
- Strong, Andrew W.; Moskalenko, Igor V.; Ptuskin, Vladimir S.
- Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science, Vol. 57, Issue 1
Electron Acceleration in Supernova Remnants and Diffuse Gamma Rays above 1 GeV
journal, November 1998
- Pohl, Martin; Esposito, Joseph A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 507, Issue 1
Models for galactic cosmic-ray propagation
journal, January 2001
- Strong, A. W.; Moskalenko, I. V.
- Advances in Space Research, Vol. 27, Issue 4
An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300–800 GeV
journal, November 2008
- Chang, J.; Adams, J. H.; Ahn, H. S.
- Nature, Vol. 456, Issue 7220
Energy Spectrum of Cosmic-Ray Electrons at TeV Energies
journal, December 2008
- Aharonian, F.; Akhperjanian, A. G.; Barres de Almeida, U.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 26
New Measurement of the Antiproton-to-Proton Flux Ratio up to 100 GeV in the Cosmic Radiation
journal, February 2009
- Adriani, O.; Barbarino, G. C.; Bazilevskaya, G. A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 5
An anomalous positron abundance in cosmic rays with energies 1.5–100 GeV
journal, April 2009
- Adriani, O.; Barbarino, G. C.; Bazilevskaya, G. A.
- Nature, Vol. 458, Issue 7238
Study of the combined particle identification capability of a transition radiation detector and a silicon imaging calorimeter during the TS93 balloon flight
journal, August 1997
- Bellotti, R.; Cafagna, F.; Castellano, M.
- Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 7, Issue 3
Production and Propagation of Cosmic‐Ray Positrons and Electrons
journal, February 1998
- Moskalenko, I. V.; Strong, A. W.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 493, Issue 2
Positrons from dark matter annihilation in the galactic halo: Theoretical uncertainties
journal, March 2008
- Delahaye, T.; Lineros, R.; Donato, F.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 77, Issue 6
Model-independent implications of the , cosmic ray spectra on properties of Dark Matter
journal, May 2009
- Cirelli, M.; Kadastik, M.; Raidal, M.
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 813, Issue 1-2
Pulsars as the sources of high energy cosmic ray positrons
journal, January 2009
- Hooper, Dan; Blasi, Pasquale; Serpico, Pasquale Dario
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2009, Issue 01
Measurement of the Cosmic Ray Spectrum from 20 GeV to 1 TeV with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
journal, May 2009
- Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 18
Inverse Compton Origin of the Hard X‐Ray and Soft Gamma‐Ray Emission from the Galactic Ridge
journal, July 2008
- Porter, Troy A.; Moskalenko, Igor V.; Strong, Andrew W.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 682, Issue 1
Diffuse Galactic Continuum Gamma Rays: A Model Compatible with EGRET Data and Cosmic‐Ray Measurements
journal, October 2004
- Strong, Andrew W.; Moskalenko, Igor V.; Reimer, Olaf
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 613, Issue 2
Cosmic‐Ray Electrons and Positrons from 1 to 100 GeV: Measurements with HEAT and Their Interpretation
journal, September 2001
- DuVernois, M. A.; Barwick, S. W.; Beatty, J. J.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 559, Issue 1
The imprint of Gould's Belt on the local cosmic-ray electron spectrum
journal, October 2003
- Pohl, M.; Perrot, C.; Grenier, I.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 409, Issue 2
The Cosmic‐Ray Electron and Positron Spectra Measured at 1 AU during Solar Minimum Activity
journal, March 2000
- Boezio, M.; Carlson, P.; Francke, T.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 532, Issue 1
Pulsars and Very High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Electrons
journal, November 1970
- Shen, C. S.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 162
Pulsars as gamma ray sources: Nebular shocks and magnetospheric gaps
journal, January 1996
- Arons, Jonathan
- Space Science Reviews, Vol. 75, Issue 1-2
Pulsar-Wind Origin of Cosmic-Ray Positrons
journal, March 1996
- Chi,, X.; Cheng,, K. S.; Young, E. C. M.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 459, Issue 2
Cosmic-ray positrons from mature gamma-ray pulsars
journal, March 2001
- Zhang, L.; Cheng, K. S.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 368, Issue 3
Contributions from nearby pulsars to the local cosmic ray electron spectrum
journal, August 2008
- Büsching, I.; Venter, C.; de Jager, O. C.
- Advances in Space Research, Vol. 42, Issue 3
The Evolution and Structure of Pulsar Wind Nebulae
journal, September 2006
- Gaensler, Bryan M.; Slane, Patrick O.
- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 44, Issue 1
The Australia Telescope National Facility Pulsar Catalogue
journal, April 2005
- Manchester, R. N.; Hobbs, G. B.; Teoh, A.
- The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 129, Issue 4
EGRET high-energy gamma-ray pulsar studies. 1: Young spin-powered pulsars
journal, November 1994
- Thompson, D. J.; Arzoumanian, Z.; Bertsch, D. L.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 436
Inverse Compton gamma radiation of faint synchrotron X-ray nebulae around pulsars
journal, October 1997
- Aharonian, F. A.; Atoyan, A. M.; Kifune, T.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 291, Issue 1
Detection of 16 Gamma-Ray Pulsars Through Blind Frequency Searches Using the Fermi LAT
journal, July 2009
- Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.
- Science, Vol. 325, Issue 5942
Parallax Observations with the [ITAL]Hubble Space Telescope[/ITAL] Yield the Distance to Geminga
journal, April 1996
- Caraveo,, Patrizia A.; Bignami,, Giovanni F.; Mignani,, Roberto
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 461, Issue 2
Supersymmetric dark matter
journal, March 1996
- Jungman, Gerard; Kamionkowski, Marc; Griest, Kim
- Physics Reports, Vol. 267, Issue 5-6
Constraints on WIMP Dark Matter from the High Energy PAMELA Data
journal, February 2009
- Donato, F.; Maurin, D.; Brun, P.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 7
Dark matter and collider phenomenology of universal extra dimensions
journal, December 2007
- Hooper, Dan; Profumo, Stefano
- Physics Reports, Vol. 453, Issue 2-4
Exciting dark matter and the INTEGRAL/SPI 511 keV signal
journal, October 2007
- Finkbeiner, Douglas P.; Weiner, Neal
- Physical Review D, Vol. 76, Issue 8
Secluded WIMP dark matter
journal, April 2008
- Pospelov, Maxim; Ritz, Adam; Voloshin, Mikhail
- Physics Letters B, Vol. 662, Issue 1
TeV -rays and the largest masses and annihilation cross sections of neutralino dark matter
journal, November 2005
- Profumo, Stefano
- Physical Review D, Vol. 72, Issue 10
Fitting the gamma-ray spectrum from dark matter with DMFIT: GLAST and the galactic center region
journal, November 2008
- Jeltema, Tesla E.; Profumo, Stefano
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2008, Issue 11
On the origin of cosmic rays: Some problems in high-energy astrophysics
journal, April 1976
- Ginzburg, V. L.; Ptuskin, V. S.
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 48, Issue 2
Works referencing / citing this record:
Multiwavelength Investigation of Pulsar Wind Nebula DA 495 with HAWC, VERITAS, and NuSTAR
journal, June 2019
- Coerver, A.; Wilcox, P.; Zhang, H.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 878, Issue 2
Impact of Cosmic-Ray Physics on Dark Matter Indirect Searches
journal, December 2018
- Gaggero, Daniele; Valli, Mauro
- Advances in High Energy Physics, Vol. 2018
Dark matter annihilation in the circumgalactic medium at high redshifts
journal, November 2017
- Schön, S.; Mack, K. J.; Wyithe, J. S. B.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 474, Issue 3
Late decaying 2-component dark matter scenario as an explanation of the AMS-02 positron excess
journal, October 2017
- Buch, Jatan; Ralegankar, Pranjal; Rentala, Vikram
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2017, Issue 10
LEP shines light on dark matter
journal, July 2011
- Fox, Patrick J.; Harnik, Roni; Kopp, Joachim
- Physical Review D, Vol. 84, Issue 1
Neutrino signals from dark matter decay
journal, April 2010
- Covi, Laura; Grefe, Michael; Ibarra, Alejandro
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2010, Issue 04
Current and future constraints on dark matter from prompt and inverse-Compton photon emission in the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background
journal, February 2012
- Abazajian, Kevork N.; Blanchet, Steve; Harding, J. Patrick
- Physical Review D, Vol. 85, Issue 4
Dark matter evidence, particle physics candidates and detection methods
journal, August 2012
- Bergström, L.
- Annalen der Physik, Vol. 524, Issue 9-10
Dark matter annihilation in the first galaxy haloes
journal, June 2015
- Schön, S.; Mack, K. J.; Avram, C. A.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 451, Issue 3
Indirect detection of gravitino dark matter including its three-body decays
journal, October 2010
- Choi, Ki-Young; Restrepo, Diego; Yaguna, Carlos E.
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2010, Issue 10
Dynamical Dark Matter and the positron excess in light of AMS results
journal, November 2013
- Dienes, Keith R.; Kumar, Jason; Thomas, Brooks
- Physical Review D, Vol. 88, Issue 10
An updated analysis of Inert Higgs Doublet Model in light of the recent results from LUX, PLANCK, AMS-02 and LHC
journal, June 2014
- Arhrib, Abdesslam; Tsai, Yue-Lin Sming; Yuan, Qiang
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 06
Circular polarisation: a new probe of dark matter and neutrinos in the sky
journal, May 2017
- Bœhm, Céline; Degrande, Céline; Mattelaer, Olivier
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2017, Issue 05
Measurement of cosmic-ray electrons at TeV energies by VERITAS
text, January 2018
- Archer, A.; Benbow, W.; Bird, R.
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg
Neutrino Signals from Dark Matter Decay
text, January 2009
- Covi, Laura; Grefe, Michael; Ibarra, Alejandro
- arXiv
Current and Future Constraints on Dark Matter from Prompt and Inverse-Compton Photon Emission in the Isotropic Diffuse Gamma-ray Background
text, January 2010
- Abazajian, Kevork N.; Blanchet, Steve; Harding, J. Patrick
- arXiv
LEP Shines Light on Dark Matter
text, January 2011
- Fox, Patrick J.; Harnik, Roni; Kopp, Joachim
- arXiv
Search for Dark Matter Satellites using the FERMI-LAT
text, January 2012
- Collaboration, The Fermi LAT; Ackermann, M.; Albert, A.
- arXiv
Low energy cosmic ray positron fraction explained by charge-sign dependent solar modulation
text, January 2012
- Maccione, Luca
- arXiv
An Updated Analysis of Inert Higgs Doublet Model in light of the Recent Results from LUX, PLANCK, AMS-02 and LHC
text, January 2013
- Arhrib, Abdesslam; Tsai, Yue-Lin Sming; Yuan, Qiang
- arXiv
Current Dark Matter Annihilation Constraints from CMB and Low-Redshift Data
text, January 2013
- Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Sehgal, Neelima; Slatyer, Tracy R.
- arXiv
Late decaying 2-component dark matter scenario as an explanation of the AMS-02 positron excess
text, January 2016
- Buch, Jatan; Ralegankar, Pranjal; Rentala, Vikram
- arXiv
HAWC Observations Strongly Favor Pulsar Interpretations of the Cosmic-Ray Positron Excess
text, January 2017
- Hooper, Dan; Cholis, Ilias; Linden, Tim
- arXiv