New determination of the production cross section for secondary positrons and electrons in the Galaxy

Abstract

The cosmic-ray fluxes of electrons and positrons ($e^{\pm }$) are measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. To infer a precise interpretation of the production processes for $e^{\pm }$ in our Galaxy, it is necessary to have an accurate description of the secondary component, produced by the interaction of cosmic-ray proton and helium with the interstellar medium atoms. We determine new analytical functions of the Lorentz invariant cross section for the production of ${\pi }^{\pm }$ and $K^{\pm }$ by fitting data from collider experiments. We also evaluate the invariant cross sections for several other channels, involving for example hyperon decays, contributing at the few \% level on the total cross section. For all these particles, the relevant 2 and 3 body decay channels are implemented, with the polarized ${\mu }^{\pm }$ decay computed with next-to-leading order corrections. The cross section for scattering of nuclei heavier than protons is modeled by fitting data on $p+C$ collisions. The total differential cross section $d\sigma /d{T}_{e^{\pm }}(p+p\to e^{\pm }+X)$ is predicted from 10 MeV up to 10 TeV of $e^{\pm }$ energy with an uncertainty of about 5-7\% in the energies relevant for AMS-02 positron flux, thus dramatically reducing the precision of the theoretical model with respect to the state of the art. Finally, we provide a prediction for the secondary Galactic $e^{\pm }$ source spectrum with an uncertainty of the same level. As a service for the scientific community, we provide numerical tables and a script to calculate energy-differential cross sections.

25 pages, 19 figures. Typos corrected, matches version published by PRD. The tables of the energy differential cross sections of electrons and positrons with a script to read them can be found here: https://github.com/lucaorusa/positron_electron_cross_section

References in corpus (34)

• An Introduction to PYTHIA 8.2
• Direct detection of a break in the teraelectronvolt cosmic-ray spectrum of electrons and positrons
• Parameterization of Gamma, e^+/- and Neutrino Spectra Produced by p-p Interaction in Astronomical Environment
• The cosmic-ray electron flux measured by the PAMELA experiment between 1 and 625 GeV
• Interleaved Parton Showers and Tuning Prospects
• Galactic secondary positron flux at the Earth
• Cosmic-ray propagation with DRAGON2: I. numerical solver and astrophysical ingredients
• Study of the inclusive production of charged pions, kaons, and protons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 0.9, 2.76, and 7 TeV
• Minimal Dark Matter predictions for galactic positrons, anti-protons, photons
• Measurement of boron and carbon fluxes in cosmic rays with the PAMELA experiment
• Galactic cosmic rays after the AMS-02 observations
• Inclusive production of charged pions in p+C collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum
• AMS-02 beryllium data and its implication for cosmic ray transport
• Cosmic-ray transport from AMS-02 B/C data: benchmark models and interpretation
• Multimessenger constraints on the dark matter interpretation of the Fermi-LAT Galactic center excess
• Cosmic Ray Antiprotons at High Energies
• Production of Mesons and Baryons at High Rapidity and High Pt in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
• A new look at the cosmic ray positron fraction
• 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
• Galactic halo size in the light of recent AMS-02 data
• Measurement of charged pion, kaon, and proton production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV
• Energy spectra of secondaries in proton-proton interactions
• Implications of Lithium to Oxygen AMS-02 spectra on our understanding of cosmic-ray diffusion
• Implications of current nuclear cross sections on secondary cosmic rays with the upcoming DRAGON2 code
• Markov chain Monte Carlo analyses of the flux ratios of B, Be and Li with the DRAGON2 code
• Constraining positron emission from pulsar populations with AMS-02 data
• Testing the universality of cosmic-ray nuclei from protons to oxygen with AMS-02
• New determination of the production cross section for secondary positrons and electrons in the Galaxy
• Intermediate mass and heavy Galactic cosmic-ray nuclei: the case of new AMS-02 measurements
• Charged Pion Production in p+C Collisions at 158 GeV/c Beam Momentum: Discussion
• Utilizing cosmic-ray positron and electron observations to probe the averaged properties of Milky Way pulsars
• $K_S^0$ meson production in inelastic $\text{p+p}$ interactions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum measured by NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS
• Paramaterizations of inclusive cross sections for pion production in proton-proton collisions. II. Comparison to new data

Cited by in corpus (4)

• FLUKA cross sections for cosmic-ray interactions with the DRAGON2 code
• New determination of the production cross section for secondary positrons and electrons in the Galaxy
• 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