Measurement of the cosmic-ray proton spectrum from 40 GeV to 100 TeV with the DAMPE satellite

Abstract

The precise measurement of the spectrum of protons, the most abundant component of the cosmic radiation, is necessary to understand the source and acceleration of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. This work reports the measurement of the cosmic ray proton fluxes with kinetic energies from 40 GeV to 100 TeV, with two and a half years of data recorded by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE). This is the first time an experiment directly measures the cosmic ray protons up to ~100 TeV with a high statistics. The measured spectrum confirms the spectral hardening found by previous experiments and reveals a softening at ~13.6 TeV, with the spectral index changing from ~2.60 to ~2.85. Our result suggests the existence of a new spectral feature of cosmic rays at energies lower than the so-called knee, and sheds new light on the origin of Galactic cosmic rays.

37 pages, 5 figures, published in Science Advances

References in corpus (6)

• Direct detection of a break in the teraelectronvolt cosmic-ray spectrum of electrons and positrons
• Discrepant hardening observed in cosmic-ray elemental spectra
• The DArk Matter Particle Explorer mission
• Spectral breaks as a signature of cosmic ray induced turbulence in the Galaxy
• The on-orbit calibration of DArk Matter Particle Explorer
• ARGO-YBJ Observation of the Large-scale Anisotropy During the Solar Minimum between Cycles 23 and 24

Cited by in corpus (106)

• Measurement of the cosmic ray helium energy spectrum from 70 GeV to 80 TeV with the DAMPE space mission
• Measurement of ultra-high-energy diffuse gamma-ray emission of the Galactic plane from 10 TeV to 1 PeV with LHAASO-KM2A
• Inference of the Local Interstellar Spectra of Cosmic Ray Nuclei Z<=28 with the GalProp-HelMod Framework
• Detection of spectral hardenings in cosmic-ray boron-to-carbon and boron-to-oxygen flux ratios with DAMPE
• An Ultrahigh-energy $\gamma$-ray Bubble Powered by a Super PeVatron
• The low rate of Galactic pevatrons
• The Hunt for Pevatrons: The Case of Supernova Remnants
• Direct Measurement of the Cosmic-Ray Carbon and Oxygen Spectra from 10 GeV$/n$ to 2.2 TeV$/n$ with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station
• Production and attenuation of cosmic-ray boosted dark matter
• Diurnal Effect of Sub-GeV Dark Matter Boosted by Cosmic Rays
• Constraints on sub-GeV dark matter boosted by cosmic rays from the CDEX-10 experiment at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory
• Measurement of the Iron Spectrum in Cosmic Rays from 10 GeV$/n$ to 2.0 TeV$/n$ with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station
• Massive star cluster origin for the galactic cosmic ray population at very-high energies
• Measurements of All-Particle Energy Spectrum and Mean Logarithmic Mass of Cosmic Rays from 0.3 to 30 PeV with LHAASO-KM2A
• Direct Measurement of the Cosmic-Ray Helium Spectrum from 40 GeV to 250 TeV with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station
• Gamma rays as probes of cosmic-ray propagation and interactions in galaxies
• Diffuse Emission of Galactic High-Energy Neutrinos from a Global Fit of Cosmic Rays
• Cosmic ray protons and electrons from supernova remnants
• Cosmic-ray Boron Flux Measured from 8.4 GeV$/n$ to 3.8 TeV$/n$ with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station
• Markov chain Monte Carlo analyses of the flux ratios of B, Be and Li with the DRAGON2 code
• Constraining light dark matter upscattered by ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays
• Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission from GeV to PeV energies in light of up-to-date cosmic ray measurements
• The TeV Cosmic Ray Bump: a Message from Epsilon Indi or Epsilon Eridani Star?
• Cosmic ray spectrum of protons plus helium nuclei between 6 TeV and 158 TeV from HAWC data
• Where are Milky Way's Hadronic PeVatrons?
• Revisiting cosmic ray antinuclei fluxes with a new coalescence model
• On the origin of observed cosmic ray spectrum below 100 TV
• TeV cosmic ray nuclei acceleration in shell-type supernova remnants with hard $\gamma$-ray spectra
• Interpretations of the cosmic ray secondary-to-primary ratios measured by DAMPE
• Pion decay model of TIBET-AS$\gamma$ PeV gamma-ray signal
• A cosmic-ray database update: CRDB v4.1
• DAMPE proton spectrum indicates a slow-diffusion zone in the nearby ISM
• High-Statistics Measurement of the Cosmic-Ray Electron Spectrum with H.E.S.S
• A deep learning method for the trajectory reconstruction of cosmic rays with the DAMPE mission
• Measurement of the cosmic p+He energy spectrum from 50 GeV to 0.5 PeV with the DAMPE space mission
• Development of the photo-diode subsystem for the HERD calorimeter double-readout
• Dark Matter Line Searches with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Direct Measurement of the Nickel Spectrum in Cosmic Rays in the Energy Range from 8.8 GeV/n to 240 GeV/n with CALET on the International Space Station
• Calibration of the Air Shower Energy Scale of the Water and Air Cherenkov Techniques in the LHAASO experiment
• A neural network classifier for electron identification on the DAMPE experiment
• Prospects for detection of a Galactic diffuse neutrino flux
• Correction Method for the Readout Saturation of the DAMPE Calorimeter
• Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to TeV photon emission from the Large Magellanic Cloud
• A Three-component Model for Cosmic-ray Spectrum and Dipole Anisotropy
• Statistically study the optimal local sources for cosmic ray nuclei and electron
• Understanding the phase reversals of Galactic cosmic ray anisotropies
• Local interstellar spectra and solar modulation of cosmic ray electrons and positrons
• The CaloCube calorimeter for high-energy cosmic-ray measurements in space: performance of a large-scale prototype
• Comparison of proton shower developments in the BGO calorimeter of the Dark Matter Particle Explorer between GEANT4 and FLUKA simulations
• Possible contribution of X-ray binary jets to the Galactic cosmic ray and neutrino flux
• Probing LHAASO Galactic PeVatrons through gamma-ray and neutrino correspondence
• A common origin of multi-messenger spectral anomaly of galactic cosmic rays
• Evidence of fresh cosmic ray in galactic plane based on DAMPE measurement of B/C and B/O ratios
• Effect of the uncertainty in the hadronic interaction models on the estimation of the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Search for relativistic fractionally charged particles in space
• Effect of electric interaction on the deflection and gravitational lensing in the strong field limit
• Implications of a Possible Spectral Structure of Cosmic-ray Protons Unveiled by the DAMPE
• Production of light antinuclei in $pp$ collisions by dynamical coalescence and their fluxes in cosmic rays near earth
• Detection of the Crab Nebula using a Random Forest Analysis of the first TAIGA IACT Data
• Imprints of PeV cosmic-ray sources on the diffuse gamma-ray emission
• Direct Comparison of SiPM and PMT Sensor Performances in a large-size imaging air Cherenkov telescope
• LHAASO protons versus LHAASO diffuse gamma-rays: a consistency check
• Injection spectra of different species of cosmic rays from AMS-02, ACE-CRIS and Voyager-1
• The origin of the power-law form of the extragalactic gamma-ray flux
• Large-scale anisotropy of Galactic cosmic rays as a probe of local cosmic-ray propagation
• Escape of cosmic rays from perpendicular shocks in the circumstellar magnetic field
• Machine learning-based method of calorimeter saturation correction for helium flux analysis with DAMPE experiment
• Galactic diffuse emission from radio to ultra-high-energy gamma rays in light of up-to-date cosmic ray measurements
• Light, Unstable Sterile Neutrinos: Phenomenology, a Search in the IceCube Experiment, and a Global Picture
• An Unsupervised Machine Learning Method for Electron--Proton Discrimination of the DAMPE Experiment
• Interpreting the GeV-TeV Gamma-Ray Spectra of Local Giant Molecular Clouds using GEANT4 Simulation
• A study on Performance Boost of a 17~m class Cherenkov telescope with a SiPM-based camera
• Detection of diffuse gamma-ray emission towards a massive star forming region hosting Wolf-Rayet stars
• Potential of Constraining Propagation Parameters of Galactic Cosmic Rays with the High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection facility onboard China's Space Station
• Very Local Impact on the Spectrum of Cosmic-Ray Nuclei below 100 TeV
• BGO quenching effect on spectral measurements of cosmic-ray nuclei in DAMPE experiment
• Hadronic cross section measurements with the DAMPE space mission using 20GeV-10TeV cosmic-ray protons and ${}^4$He
• X-ray Binaries: a potential dominant contributor to the cosmic ray spectral knee structure
• PSF Calibration of DAMPE for gamma-ray Observations
• Reanalysis of the Systematic Uncertainties in Cosmic-Ray Antiproton Flux
• Direct measurements of cosmic rays and their possible interpretations
• Investigating the CREDIT history of supernova remnants as cosmic-ray sources
• Determination of the absolute energy scale of the DAMPE calorimeter with the geomagnetic rigidity cutoff method
• Cosmic-ray deuteron excess from a primary component
• Between the cosmic-ray `knee' and the `ankle': Contribution from star clusters
• Precise Measurement of the Cosmic Ray Helium Spectrum above 0.1 PeV
• Observations of the Fermi bubbles and the Galactic center excess with the DArk Matter Particle Explorer
• Massive Star Clusters as sources of high-energy gamma radiation
• A Left-Right Mirror Symmetric Model: Common Origin of Neutrino Mass, Baryon Asymmetry and Dark Matter
• Cosmic ray mass composition measurement in the energy range from $10^{16.5}$ eV to $10^{18.5}$ eV observed with the TALE hybrid detector
• New determination of the neutrino hadronic production cross sections from GeV to beyond PeV energies
• A Study on Monte Carlo simulation of the radiation environment above GeV at the DAMPE orbit
• Optimal gamma-ray selections for monochromatic line searches with DAMPE
• Constraining the cosmic ray propagation halo thickness using Fermi-LAT observations of high-latitude clouds
• Joint constraint on the propagation origin of the cosmic-ray spectral knee from energy spectrum and anisotropy observations
• Research on electron and positron spectrum in the high-energy region based on the gluon condensation model
• Energy calibration of LHAASO-KM2A using the cosmic ray Moon shadow
• Escape of cosmic rays from perpendicular shocks in the interstellar magnetic field
• Influence of interstellar environment near the solar system on cosmic-ray spectra and dipole anisotropy
• Measurement of High Energy Gamma Rays from 200 MeV to 1 TeV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station
• Deciphering the spectral bumps of Galactic cosmic rays through gamma-ray observations of nearby molecular clouds
• Interpreting the LHAASO Galactic diffuse emission data
• Constraining the position of the knee in the galactic cosmic ray spectrum with ultra-high-energy diffuse $\gamma$-rays
• Investigation of hadronic cross sections of cosmic ray carbon and oxygen on BGO from 200 GeV to 10 TeV energy at the DAMPE experiment
• Analyzing Cosmic Ray Spectral Features: A Numerical Investigation
• TeV-PeV Gamma-ray and Neutrino Emission in the Galactic Plane