Secondary Cosmic Positrons in an Inhomogeneous Diffusion Model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how an inhomogeneous diffusion model affects cosmic ray positron spectra and discusses its implications for dark matter signatures and cosmic ray propagation understanding.

Contribution

It provides an analytical solution to an inhomogeneous diffusion model, revealing significant effects on positron spectra and challenging established cosmic ray propagation models.

Findings

Spectral features of positron spectra are significantly affected by inhomogeneity.

Inhomogeneity influences hadronic spectra.

The model offers new insights into cosmic ray propagation and dark matter signatures.

Abstract

One aim of cosmic ray measurements is the search for possible signatures of annihilating or decaying dark matter. The so-called positron excess has attracted a lot of attention in this context. On the other hand it has been proposed that the data might challenge the established diffusion model for cosmic ray propagation. We investigate an inhomogeneous diffusion model by solving the corresponding equations analytically. Depending on the propagation parameters we find that the spectral features of the positron spectrum are affected significantly. We also discuss the influence of the inhomogeneity on hadronic spectra.