What can we learn from a sharply falling positron fraction?

TL;DR

This paper explores the implications of a potential sharp decline in the cosmic ray positron fraction, analyzing future data scenarios to understand underlying sources like dark matter or pulsars.

Contribution

It investigates the possible consequences of a sudden drop in the positron fraction, providing insights into cosmic ray sources and injection mechanisms.

Findings

A sharp decline would suggest secondary production dominance

Implications for dark matter and pulsar models are discussed

Forecasts for future observational signatures are provided

Abstract

Recent results from the AMS-02 data have confirmed that the cosmic ray positron fraction increases with energy between 10 and 200GeV. This quantity should not exceed 50%, and it is hence expected that it will either converge towards 50% or fall. We study the possibility that future data may show the positron fraction dropping down abruptly to the level expected with only secondary production, and forecast the implications of such a feature in term of possible injection mechanisms that include both Dark Matter and pulsars.