The cosmic-ray total electron spectrum (electrons plus positrons) has been measured precisely up to TeV energies, with more interesting features found. Exhaustive analyses of the electron spectrum strongly support a...The cosmic-ray total electron spectrum (electrons plus positrons) has been measured precisely up to TeV energies, with more interesting features found. Exhaustive analyses of the electron spectrum strongly support a spectral hardening above 100 GeV, rather than a featureless single power-law, which is confirmed by the most recent observations. Meanwhile, the measurements of the DAMPE satellite have verified the presence of a knee-like structure around 1 TeV in the electron spectrum, resembling the cosmic-ray knee. In this paper, we establish a physical model in which the observed electron spectrum is composed of a superposition of CR sources with various spectral indices and high-energy cutoffs. The dispersion of the power index is assumed to be Gaussian, while the cutoff energy Ec follows a power-law distribution. These simple ideas can account naturally for both the hundred-GeV excess and the TeV spectral break.展开更多
基金Supported by National Natural Sciences Foundation of China(11663006,11747316,11135010,11405182)the Research Project of Chinese Ministry of Education(213036A)
文摘The cosmic-ray total electron spectrum (electrons plus positrons) has been measured precisely up to TeV energies, with more interesting features found. Exhaustive analyses of the electron spectrum strongly support a spectral hardening above 100 GeV, rather than a featureless single power-law, which is confirmed by the most recent observations. Meanwhile, the measurements of the DAMPE satellite have verified the presence of a knee-like structure around 1 TeV in the electron spectrum, resembling the cosmic-ray knee. In this paper, we establish a physical model in which the observed electron spectrum is composed of a superposition of CR sources with various spectral indices and high-energy cutoffs. The dispersion of the power index is assumed to be Gaussian, while the cutoff energy Ec follows a power-law distribution. These simple ideas can account naturally for both the hundred-GeV excess and the TeV spectral break.