The Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has collected the largest ever sample of high-energy cosmic-ray electron and positron events. Possible features in their energy spectrum could be a signature of the presence of nearby astrophysical sources or of more exotic sources, such as annihilation or decay of dark matter (DM) particles in the Galaxy. In this paper, for the first time we search for a deltalike line feature in the cosmic-ray electron and positron spectrum. We also search for a possible feature originating from DM particles annihilating into electron-positron pairs. Both searches yield negative results, but we are able to set constraints on the line intensity and on the velocity-averaged DM annihilation cross section. Our limits extend up to DM masses of 1.7 TeV/c(2) and exclude the thermal value of the annihilation cross section for DM lighter than 150 GeV/c(2).

Search for features in the cosmic-ray electron and positron spectrum measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Loparco, F
;
2018-01-01

Abstract

The Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has collected the largest ever sample of high-energy cosmic-ray electron and positron events. Possible features in their energy spectrum could be a signature of the presence of nearby astrophysical sources or of more exotic sources, such as annihilation or decay of dark matter (DM) particles in the Galaxy. In this paper, for the first time we search for a deltalike line feature in the cosmic-ray electron and positron spectrum. We also search for a possible feature originating from DM particles annihilating into electron-positron pairs. Both searches yield negative results, but we are able to set constraints on the line intensity and on the velocity-averaged DM annihilation cross section. Our limits extend up to DM masses of 1.7 TeV/c(2) and exclude the thermal value of the annihilation cross section for DM lighter than 150 GeV/c(2).
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11586/447600
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 9
social impact