Extended gamma-ray sources around pulsars constrain the origin of the positron flux at Earth
16 Nov 2017
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Abeysekara A. U. 13 and 14,
Albert A. 13 and 14,
Alfaro R. 13 and 14,
Alvarez C. 13 and 14,
Álvarez J. D. 13 and 14,
Arceo R. 13 and 14,
Arteaga-Velázquez J. C. 13 and 14,
Rojas D. Avila 13 and 14,
Solares H. A. Ayala 13 and 14,
Barber A. S. 13 and 14,
Bautista-Elivar N. 13 and 14,
Becerril A. 13 and 14,
Belmont-Moreno E. 13 and 14,
BenZvi S. Y. 13 and 14,
Berley D. 13 and 14,
Bernal A. 13 and 14,
Braun J. 13 and 14,
Brisbois C. 13 and 14,
Caballero-Mora K. S. 13 and 14,
Capistrán T. 13 and 14,
Carramiñana A. 13 and 14,
Casanova S. 13 and 14,
Castillo M. 25 and 4,
Cotti U. 25 and 4,
Cotzomi J. 25 and 4,
de León S. Coutiño 25 and 4,
De León C. 25 and 4,
De la Fuente E. 25 and 4,
Dingus B. L. 25 and 4,
DuVernois M. A. 25 and 4,
Díaz-Vélez J. C. 25 and 4,
Ellsworth R. W. 25 and 4,
Engel K. 25 and 4,
Enríquez-Rivera O. 25 and 4,
Fiorino D. W. 25 and 4,
Fraija N. 25 and 4,
García-González J. A. 25 and 4,
Garfias F. 25 and 4,
Gerhardt M. 25 and 4,
Muñoz A. González 25 and 4,
González M. M. 25 and 4,
Goodman J. A. 25 and 4,
Hampel-Arias Z. 25 and 4,
Harding J. P. 25 and 4,
Hernández S. 25 and 4,
Hernández-Almada A. 25 and 4,
Hinton J. 25 and 4,
Hona B. 25 and 4,
Hui C. M. 25 and 4,
Hüntemeyer P. 25 and 4,
Iriarte A. 25 and 4,
Jardin-Blicq A. 25 and 4,
Joshi V. 25 and 4,
Kaufmann S. 25 and 4,
Kieda D. 25 and 4,
Lara A. 25 and 4,
Lauer R. J. 25 and 4,
Lee W. H. 25 and 4,
Lennarz D. 25 and 4,
Vargas H. León 25 and 4,
Linnemann J. T. 25 and 4,
Longinotti A. L. 25 and 4,
Raya G. Luis 25 and 4,
Luna-García R. 25 and 4,
López-Coto R. 25 and 4,
Malone K. 25 and 4,
Marinelli S. S. 25 and 4,
Martinez O. 25 and 4,
Martinez-Castellanos I. 25 and 4,
Martínez-Castro J. 25 and 4,
Martínez-Huerta H. 25 and 4,
Matthews J. A. 25 and 4,
Miranda-Romagnoli P. 25 and 4,
Moreno E. 25 and 4,
Mostafá M. 25 and 4,
Nellen L. 25 and 4,
Newbold M. 25 and 4,
Nisa M. U. 25 and 4,
Noriega-Papaqui R. 25 and 4,
Pelayo R. 25 and 4,
Pretz J. 25 and 4,
Pérez-Pérez E. G. 25 and 4,
Ren Z. 25 and 4,
Rho C. D. 25 and 4,
Rivière C. 25 and 4,
Rosa-González D. 25 and 4,
Rosenberg M. 25 and 4,
Ruiz-Velasco E. 25 and 4,
Salazar H. 25 and 4,
Greus F. Salesa 25 and 4,
Sandoval A. 25 and 4,
Schneider M. 25 and 4,
Schoorlemmer H. 25 and 4,
Sinnis G. 25 and 4,
Smith A. J. 25 and 4,
Springer R. W. 25 and 4,
Surajbali P. 25 and 4,
Taboada I. 25 and 4,
Tibolla O. 25 and 4,
Tollefson K. 25 and 4,
Torres I. 25 and 4,
Ukwatta T. N. 25 and 4,
Vianello G. 25 and 4,
Weisgarber T. 25 and 4,
Westerhoff S. 25 and 4,
Wisher I. G. 25 and 4,
Wood J. 25 and 4,
Yapici T. 25 and 4,
Yodh G. 25 and 4,
Younk P. W. 25 and 4,
Zepeda A. 25 and 4,
Zhou H.,
Guo F.,
Hahn J.,
Li H.,
Zhang H.·
The unexpectedly high flux of cosmic ray positrons detected at Earth may
originate from nearby astrophysical sources, dark matter, or unknown processes
of cosmic-ray secondary production. We report the detection, using the
HighAltitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), of extended tera-electron volt
gamma-ray emission coincident with the locations of two nearby middle-aged
pulsars (Geminga and PSR B0656+14). The HAWC observations demonstrate that
these pulsars are indeed local sources of accelerated leptons, but the measured
tera-electron volt emission profile constrains the diffusion of particles away
from these sources to be much slower than previously assumed. We demonstrate
that the leptons emitted by these objects are therefore unlikely to be the
origin of the excess positrons, which may have a more exotic origin.
