Result: An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300-800 GeV

Title:
An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300-800 GeV
Authors:
CHANG, J, ADAMS, J. H, PANASYUK, M. I, PANOV, A. D, SCHMIDT, W. K. H, SEO, E. S, SOKOLSKAYA, N. V, WATTS, J. W, WEFEL, J. P, WU, J, ZATSEPIN, V. I, AHN, H. S, BASHINDZHAGYAN, G. L, CHRISTL, M, GANEL, O, GUZIK, T. G, ISBERT, J, KIM, K. C, KUZNETSOV, E. N
Source:
Nature (London). 456(7220):362-365
Publisher Information:
London: Nature Publishing Group, 2008.
Publication Year:
2008
Physical Description:
print, 32 ref
Original Material:
INIST-CNRS
Subject Terms:
Multidisciplinary, Multidisciplinaire, Sciences exactes et technologie, Exact sciences and technology, Terre, ocean, espace, Earth, ocean, space, Astronomie, Astronomy, Systèmes stellaires. Objets et systèmes galactiques et extragalactiques. L'univers, Stellar systems. Galactic and extragalactic objects and systems. The universe, Sources non identifiées de rayonnement à l'extérieur du système solaire, Unidentified sources and radiation outside the solar system, Rayonnement cosmique (incluant les sources, l'origine, l'accélération et les interactions), Cosmic rays (including sources, origin, acceleration, and interactions), Accélération particule, Particle acceleration, Aceleración partícula, Electron cosmique, Cosmic electrons, Electron relativiste, Relativistic electron, Electrón relativista, Rayonnement cosmique galactique, Galactic cosmic rays, Voie lactée, Milky Way, 9870S
Document Type:
Academic journal Article
File Description:
text
Language:
English
Author Affiliations:
Purple Mountain Observatory, CAS, 2 West Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, 2 Max Planck-Strasse, Katlenburg-Lindau 37191, Germany
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812, United States
Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, Leninskie gory, GSP1, Moscow 119991, Russian Federation
University of Maryland, Institute for Physical Science & Technology, College Park, Maryland 20742, United States
Louisiana State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, United States
ISSN:
0028-0836
Access URL:
http://pascal-francis.inist.fr/vibad/index.php?action=search&terms=20834078
Rights:
Copyright 2009 INIST-CNRS
CC BY 4.0
Sauf mention contraire ci-dessus, le contenu de cette notice bibliographique peut être utilisé dans le cadre d’une licence CC BY 4.0 Inist-CNRS / Unless otherwise stated above, the content of this bibliographic record may be used under a CC BY 4.0 licence by Inist-CNRS / A menos que se haya señalado antes, el contenido de este registro bibliográfico puede ser utilizado al amparo de una licencia CC BY 4.0 Inist-CNRS
Notes:
Astronomy
Accession Number:
edscal.20834078
Database:
PASCAL Archive

Further Information

Galactic cosmic rays consist of protons, electrons and ions, most of which are believed to be accelerated to relativistic speeds in supernova remnants1-3. All components of the cosmic rays show an intensity that decreases as a power law with increasing energy (for example as E-2.7). Electrons in particular lose energy rapidly through synchrotron and inverse Compton processes, resulting in a relatively short lifetime (about 105 years) and a rapidly falling intensity, which raises the possibility of seeing the contribution from individual nearby sources (less than one kiloparsec away)4. Here we report an excess of galactic cosmic-ray electrons at energies of ∼300-800 GeV, which indicates a nearby source of energetic electrons. Such a source could be an unseen astrophysical object (such as a pulsar or micro-quasar6) that accelerates electrons to those energies, or the electrons could arise from the annihilation of dark matter particles (such as a Kaluza-Klein particle7 with a mass of about 620 GeV).