Features in the Spectrum of Cosmic-Ray Positrons from Pulsars

Abstract

Pulsars have been invoked to explain the origin of recently observed high-energy Galactic cosmic-ray positrons. Since the positron propagation distance decreases with energy, the number of pulsars that can contribute to the observed positrons decreases from $O(10^3)$ for positron energies $E\gtrsim 10$ GeV to only a few for $E\gtrsim 500$ GeV. Thus, if pulsars explain these positrons, the positron energy spectrum should become increasingly bumpy at higher energies. Here we present a power-spectrum analysis that can be applied to seek such spectral features in the energy spectrum for cosmic-ray positrons and for the energy spectrum of the combined electron/positron flux. We account for uncertainties in the pulsar distribution by generating hundreds of simulated spectra from pulsar distributions consistent with current observational constraints. Although the current AMS-02 data do not exhibit evidence for spectral features, we find that such features would be detectable in $\simeq 10\%$ of our simulations, with 20 years of AMS-02 data or three years of DAMPE measurements on the electron-plus-positron flux.

9 pages, 6 Figures, 3 Tables, 5 Appendices; version 2: citations added, small chances to reflect published version including added appendix E

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Cited by in corpus (21)

• A Robust Excess in the Cosmic-Ray Antiproton Spectrum: Implications for Annihilating Dark Matter
• Where do the AMS-02 anti-helium events come from?
• Stochastic cosmic ray sources and the TeV break in the all-electron spectrum
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• Two-mediator dark matter models and cosmic electron excess
• Revisiting GeV-scale annihilating dark matter with the AMS-02 positron fraction
• Observing Signals of Spectral Features in the Cosmic-Ray Positrons and Electrons from Milky Way Pulsars
• Constraining the Milky Way's Pulsar Population with the Cosmic-Ray Positron Fraction
• Geminga contribution to the cosmic-ray positron excess according to the gamma-ray observations
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