The Cosmic Ray Antiproton Background for AMS-02

Abstract

The AMS-02 experiment is measuring the cosmic ray antiproton flux with high precision. The interpretation of the upcoming data requires a thorough understanding of the secondary antiproton background. In this work, we employ newly available data of the NA49 experiment at CERN, in order to recalculate the antiproton source term arising from cosmic ray spallations on the interstellar matter. We systematically account for the production of antiprotons via hyperon decay and discuss the possible impact of isospin effects on antineutron production. A detailed comparison of our calculation with the existing literature as well as with Monte Carlo based evaluations of the antiproton source term is provided. Our most important result is an updated prediction for the secondary antiproton flux which includes a realistic assessment of the particle physics uncertainties at all energies.

24 pages, 10 figures, source term and secondary flux available in the ancillary files

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• What Does The PAMELA Antiproton Spectrum Tell Us About Dark Matter?
• New calculation of antiproton production by cosmic ray protons and nuclei
• Galactic cosmic-ray propagation in the light of AMS-02: I. Analysis of protons, helium, and antiprotons
• Dark matter or correlated errors: Systematics of the AMS-02 antiproton excess
• A fussy revisitation of antiprotons as a tool for Dark Matter searches
• Cosmic-ray antiprotons in the AMS-02 era: A sensitive probe of dark matter
• Impact of QCD uncertainties on antiproton spectra from dark-matter annihilation
• Antiproton signatures from astrophysical and dark matter sources at the galactic center
• Non-Standard Neutrino Spectra From Annihilating Neutralino Dark Matter
• Implementation of antiproton generator in Geant4