A Combined Interpretation of CR Nuclei and Antiproton High Energy Measurements

TL;DR

This paper analyzes recent high-energy cosmic ray measurements from balloon and satellite experiments, testing their compatibility with a new CR diffusion model to better understand cosmic ray propagation.

Contribution

It introduces a statistical analysis framework to compare recent experimental data with predictions from the DRAGON diffusion model for cosmic rays.

Findings

Data are consistent with a diffusion scenario above 1 GeV

Identifies a well-defined range of diffusion coefficient parameters

Supports the validity of the DRAGON model for high-energy CRs

Abstract

In the last months several ballon and satellite experiments improved significantly our knowledge of cosmic rays (CR) spectra at high energy. In particular CREAM allowed to measure B/C, C/O and N/O up to 1 TeV and PAMELA the anti-p/p ratio up to 100 GeV with unprecedented accuracy. These measurements offer a valuable probe of CR propagation properties. We performed a statistical analysis to test the compatibility of these results, as well as other most significant experimental data, with the predictions of a new numerical CR diffusion package (DRAGON). We found that above 1 GeV all data are consistent with a diffusion scenario in a well defined range of values of the diffusion coefficient energy power index and normalization.