Consistent description of leptonic and hadroninc spectra in cosmic rays

TL;DR

This paper models cosmic ray spectra using a two-component approach to explain recent AMS and ATIC-2 data, addressing the origin of spectral features and composition ratios in cosmic rays.

Contribution

It introduces a two-component model for cosmic ray spectra that accounts for recent experimental observations and discusses secondary production in supernova remnants.

Findings

Model successfully describes AMS data on leptons and hadrons.

Predicts C/Fe and O/Fe ratios consistent with ATIC-2 spectral features.

Highlights the role of nearby supernova remnants in cosmic ray composition.

Abstract

The AMS Collaboration has recently released data on cosmic ray (CR) leptons and hadrons that can shed light on two exciting problems in CR physics: on one side, the origin of the rise of the CR positron fraction above ~10 GeV of energy, on the other side, the nature of the spectral features observed in CR protons and helium at TeV energies. Concerning heavier nuclei, The ATIC-2 experiment has recently reported an puzzling spectral upturn at energy ~50 GeV per nucleon in several primary/primary ratios involving Iron, such as the O/Fe or C/Fe ratio. In this work, the AMS data are described using a two-component scenario, where the total CR flux is provided by a mixture of fluxes accelerated by sources with different properties. Within this picture, the role of secondary CR production inside nearby supernova remnants is discussed. In particular, we present the predictions of our model for the C/Fe and O/Fe ratios, in connection with the spectral anomalies found by the ATIC-2 experiment.