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Observation of an anomalous positron abundance in the cosmic radiation

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arxiv 0810.4995 v1 pith:35YIZHJI submitted 2008-10-28 astro-ph

classification astro-ph
keywords matterobservationpositronsabundancedarkpositronproductionpulsars
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Positrons are known to be produced in interactions between cosmic-ray nuclei and interstellar matter ("secondary production"). Positrons may, however, also be created by dark matter particle annihilations in the galactic halo or in the magnetospheres of near-by pulsars. The nature of dark matter is one of the most prominent open questions in science today. An observation of positrons from pulsars would open a new observation window on these sources. Here we present results from the PAMELA satellite experiment on the positron abundance in the cosmic radiation for the energy range 1.5 - 100 GeV. Our high energy data deviate significantly from predictions of secondary production models, and may constitute the first indirect evidence of dark matter particle annihilations, or the first observation of positron production from near-by pulsars. We also present evidence that solar activity significantly affects the abundance of positrons at low energies.

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Forward citations

Cited by 9 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. A Boundary-Consistent Two-Zone Electron Kernel for Distant Pulsar Contributions to Positron Flux and Anisotropy

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