The cosmic ray energy spectra of protons and helium nuclei, which are the most abundant components of cosmic radiation, exhibit a remarkable hardening at energies above one hundred GeV/nucleon. Recent data from AMS-02 confirms this feature with a higher significance. This data challenges the current models of cosmic ray acceleration in Galactic sources and propagation in the Galaxy. Here, we explain the observed break in the spectra of proton and helium nuclei in light of recent advances of cosmic ray diffusion theories in turbulent astrophysical sources as a result of a transition between different cosmic ray diffusion regimes. We reconstruct the observed cosmic ray spectra using the fact that transition from normal diffusion to superdiffusion changes the efficiency of particle acceleration and causes the change in the spectral index. We find that calculated proton and helium spectra match very well with the data.
The unprecedented quality of the data collected by the AMS-02 experiment onboard the International Space Station allowed us to address subtle questions concerning the origin and propagation of cosmic rays. Here we discuss the implications of these data for the injection spectrum of elements with different masses and for the diffusion coefficient probed by cosmic rays through their journey from the sources to the Earth. We find that the best fit to the spectra of primary and secondary nuclei requires (1) a break in the energy dependence of the diffusion coefficient at energies $\sim 300$ GV; (2…
In this thesis a measurement of the high energy $γ$-ray flux between 200 MeV and 1 TeV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is presented. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a multi-purpose particle detector mounted externally on the International Space Station. Although primarily designed for the measurement of charged cosmic rays AMS-02 is capable of measuring high energy $γ$-rays in two complementary modes. Two independent analyses are presented in this thesis, one for each of the two modes. The event selection criteria and the associated resolution functions are presented in detail…
The flux of cosmic-ray high-energy positrons has recently been measured by AMS with unprecedented precision. This flux is well above the expectation from secondary positrons made by the observed fluxes of nuclear cosmic rays impinging on the interstellar medium. Various authors have pointed out that the positron excess may originate at the primary cosmic-ray source itself, rather than in the more local ISM, thus avoiding the temptation to invoke a dark-matter decay or annihilation origin, or nearby pulsars. We investigate the possibility that the source is the one of a comprehensive model of g…
A Study of the B/C Ratio Between 10 MeV/nuc and 1 TeV/nuc in Cosmic Rays Using New Voyager and AMS-2 Data and a Comparison with the Predictions of Leaky Box Propagation Models
After six years of continuous observations in space, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment has released new data on the temporal evolution of the proton and helium fluxes in cosmic rays. These data revealed that the ratio between proton and helium fluxes at the same value of rigidity $R=p/Z$ (momentum/charge ratio) is not constant at $R\lesssim$ 3 GV. In particular, the ratio is found to decrease steadily during the descending phase of Solar Cycle 24 toward the next minimum. We show that such a behavior is a remarkable signature of the $β\timesλ(R)$ dependence in the diffusion of cosmic r…
Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) entering the heliosphere are disturbed by the magnetic field of the Sun, which varies the shape and intensity of their local interstellar spectrum. The force-field approximation is a popular way of dealing with solar modulation, especially for studies focused on galactic transport of cosmic rays. The validity of this approach to reproduce the modulated GCR fluxes at Earth is tested using monthly proton fluxes measured by PAMELA between July 2006 and January 2014 and monthly proton and helium fluxes measured by AMS-02 between May 2011 and May 2017. We show that the p…
HelMod is a Monte Carlo code developed to describe the transport of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) through the heliosphere from the interstellar space to the Earth. In the current HelMod version 4 the modulation process, based on Parker's equation, is applied to the propagation of GCRs in the inner and outer heliosphere, i.e., including the heliosheath. HelMod was proved to reproduce protons, nuclei and electrons cosmic rays spectra observed during solar cycles 23-24 by several detectors, for instance, PAMELA, BESS and AMS-02. In particular, the unprecedented accuracy of AMS-02 observations allow…
We study the propagation and injection models of cosmic rays using the latest measurements of the Boron-to-Carbon ratio and fluxes of protons, Helium, Carbon, and Oxygen nuclei by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the Advanced Composition Explorer at top of the Earth, and the Voyager spacecraft outside the heliosphere. The ACE data during the same time interval of the AMS-02 data are extracted to minimize the complexity of the solar modulation effect. We find that the cosmic ray nucleus data favor a modified version of the diffusion-reacceleration scenario of the propagation. The diffusion c…
The AMS-02 experiment has reported precise measurements of energy spectra of several cosmic-ray species in the range of ~(0.5-2000) GeV/n. An intriguing finding is the differences in the spectral shape between the different species. Protons exhibit the steepest spectrum of all the species, and helium, carbon, oxygen and iron spectra are found to be harder than that of neon, magnesium and silicon. These observations are difficult to explain as diffusive shock acceleration, the currently most plausible theory for cosmic particle acceleration at high energies, expects independence of the spectral…
Precision Measurement of Boron-to-Carbon ratio in Cosmic Rays from 2 GV to 2 TV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station
AMS-02是2011年5月安装在国际空间站上的一个被广泛接受的高能物理实验，自那时以来一直在持续运行。AMS-02能够分离污染小于$10^{-3}$的宇宙射线轻核（$1\leq Z \leq 8$）。宇宙射线硼和碳通量之间的比率已知对宇宙射线在银河系中的传播特性非常敏感，因为硼是在星际介质上的较重的主要元素如碳和氧的次级产物。达到TeV区域的精确测量可以极大地帮助理解宇宙射线在银河系中的传播以及到达地球之前穿过的物质数量。介绍了基于1000万次硼碳事件的硼碳比测量的现状。
Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) inside the heliosphere are affected by solar modulation. To investigate this phenomenon and its underlying physical mechanisms, we have performed a data-driven analysis of the temporal dependence of the CR proton flux over the solar cycle. The modulation effect was modeled by means of stochastic simulations of cosmic particles in the heliosphere. The model were constrained using measurements of CR protons made by AMS-02 and PAMELA experiments on monthly basis from 2006 to 2017. With a global statistical analysis of these data, we have determined the key model paramet…
The $γ$-ray observation of interstellar gas provides a unique way to probe the cosmic rays (CRs) outside the solar system. In this work, we use an updated version of Fermi-LAT data and recent multi-wavelength tracers of interstellar gas to re-analyze a mid-latitude region in the third Galactic quadrant and estimate the local CR proton spectrum. Two $γ$-ray production cross section models for $pp$ interaction, the commonly used one from Kamae et al. (2006) and the up-to-date one from Kafexhiu et al. (2014), are adopted separately in the analysis. Both of them can well fit the emissivity and the…
The latest AMS-02 data on cosmic ray electrons show a break in the energy spectrum around 40 GeV, with a change in the slope of about 0.1. We perform a combined fit to the newest AMS-02 positron and electron flux data above 10 GeV using a semi-analytical diffusion model where sources includes production of pairs from pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), electrons from supernova remnants (SNRs) and both species from spallation of hadronic cosmic rays with interstellar medium atoms. We demonstrate that within our setup the change of slope in the AMS-02 electron data is well explained by the interplay bet…
Electron and positron fluxes in cosmic rays are currently measured with unprecedented precision by AMS-02 up to TeV energies, and represent unique probes for the local properties of our Galaxy. The interpretation of their spectra is at present still debated, especially for the excess of positrons above 10 GeV. The hypothesis that pulsars can significantly contribute to this excess has been consolidated after the observation of gamma-ray halos at TeV energies of a few degree size around Geminga and Monogem pulsars. However, the spatial and energetic Galactic distribution of pulsars and the deta…
Precision measurement of the (e$^+$ + e$^-$) flux in primary cosmic rays from 0.5 GeV to 1 TeV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station
The flux of unstable secondary cosmic ray nuclei, produced by spallation processes in the interstellar medium, can be used to constrain the residence time of cosmic rays inside the Galaxy. Among them, $^{10}$Be is especially useful because of its relatively long half-life of 1.39 Myr. In the framework of the diffusive halo model we describe cosmic ray transport taking into account all relevant interaction channels and accounting for the decay of unstable secondary nuclei. We then compare our results with the data collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) on board the International …
Recent balloon-borne and satellite experiments have established new features in the behavior of the spectra of cosmic rays. An analysis of all the data showed that hardening of most abundant primary cosmic ray nuclei spectra with increasing rigidity is observed in $>200$ GV region. At the same time, rigidity dependencies of secondary cosmic rays are distinctly different. The AMS-02 data show that above 200 GV the secondary cosmic rays Li, Be, B harden more than the primary He, C, O. In this paper we discuss a new scenario that self-consistently describes these new features of the cosmic ray sp…
The next generation magnetic spectrometer in space, AMS-100, is designed to have a geometrical acceptance of $100\,\mathrm{m}^2\,\mathrm{sr}$ and to be operated for at least ten years at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2. Compared to existing experiments, it will improve the sensitivity for the observation of new phenomena in cosmic rays, and in particular in cosmic antimatter, by at least a factor of 1000. The magnet design is based on high temperature superconductor tapes, which allow the construction of a thin solenoid with a homogeneous magnetic field of 1 Tesla inside. The inner volume is in…
Antideuteron production cross-sections estimated using EPOS-LHC with a coalescence afterburner, tuned to reproduce published experimental data over a wide range of energy were used here as input to the galactic propagator code GALPROP, validated with comparing to existing proton, helium fluxes as well as boron-to-carbon ratio data. The resulting near-Earth antideuteron flux, including solar modulation, is compared to previous estimates. An overall factor of two increments in the antideuteron flux is predicted, the origin of which is also discussed. However, this standard model source of antide…
