GeV–TeV Cosmic-Ray Leptons in the Solar System from the Bow Shock Wind Nebula of the Nearest Millisecond Pulsar J0437–4715

Abstract

We consider acceleration of leptons up to GeV-TeV energies in the bow shock wind nebula of PSR J0437-4715 and their subsequent diffusion through the interstellar magnetic fields. The leptons accelerated at the pulsar wind termination surface are injected into re-acceleration in colliding shock flows. Modelled spectra of synchrotron emission from the accelerated electrons and positrons are consistent with the far-ultraviolet and X-ray observations of the nebula carried out with the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. These observations are employed to constrain the absolute fluxes of relativistic leptons, which are escaping from the nebula and eventually reaching the Solar System after energy-dependent diffusion through the local interstellar medium accompanied by synchrotron and Compton losses. It is shown that accelerated leptons from the nebula of PSR J0437-4715 can be responsible both for the enhancement of the positron fraction above a few GeV detected by PAMELA and AMS-02 spectrometers and for the TeV range lepton fluxes observed with H.E.S.S., VERITAS, Fermi, CALET, and DAMPE. Corresponding author: A.M. Bykov byk@astro.ioffe.ru A.M. Bykov et al.

Particle acceleration at colliding shock waves

“…The resulting particle distribution is similar to the recently modeled spectrum of cosmic-ray leptons escaping from the bow shock pulsar wind nebula of the millisecond pulsar PSR 0437-4715 (Bykov et al 2019). This system is thought to be a site of efficient particle reacceleration in the colliding shock flow zone between the pulsar termination shock and the bow shock.…”

“…The resulting spectrum of accelerated particles was found to be very hard, scaling as ∝ E −1 . The model was then used to make predictions on the gamma-ray and neutrino emission from colliding winds in compact stellar clusters (Bykov et al 2015) and in bow shock wind nebulae (Bykov et al 2019). Wang et al (2017Wang et al ( , 2019 developed a Monte Carlo code to study the acceleration of particles at a pair of colliding shocks.…”

New constraints on the magnetic field in cosmic web filaments

“…Hoeft & Brüggen 2007;Kang et al 2012;Bykov et al 2019a), also is also compatible with the modelling of supernova remnants (e.g. Uchiyama et al 2007;Bykov et al 2019b). However, we shall notice that in typically weak (M ≤ 4) shocks leading to radio relics in galaxy clusters (e.g.…”

High precision particle astrophysics as a new window on the universe with an Antimatter Large Acceptance Detector In Orbit (ALADInO)

“…The positron excess has caused a huge interest. During the last decade, hundreds of papers have proposed diverse interpretations, either invoking annihilation/decay of DM particles [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45], nearby astrophysical sources such as pulsars or supernova remnants [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] or modifications to the CR acceleration and propagation mechanisms [59][60][61][62][63][64]. These predictions are all compatible with the accuracy of current data; additional information is needed to disentangle the dominating sources of high energy e ± .…”