Testing astrophysical models for the PAMELA positron excess with cosmic ray nuclei

Abstract

The excess in the positron fraction reported by the PAMELA collaboration has been interpreted as due to annihilation or decay of dark matter in the Galaxy. More prosaically, it has been ascribed to direct production of positrons by nearby pulsars, or due to pion production during stochastic acceleration of hadronic cosmic rays in nearby sources. We point out that measurements of secondary nuclei produced by cosmic ray spallation can discriminate between these possibilities. New data on the titanium-to-iron ratio from the ATIC-2 experiment support the hadronic source model above and enable a prediction to be made for the boron-to-carbon ratio at energies above 100 GeV. Presently, all cosmic ray data are consistent with the positron excess being astrophysical in origin.

4 pages, 2 figures (RevTex4); revised to include additional data in figures and references; accepted for publication in PRL

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