Understanding cosmic rays and searching for exotic sources with PAMELA

Picozza, P.; Sparvoli, R.; the "PAMELA collaboration",

doi:doi:10.5194/astra-7-85-2011

Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 7, 85-91, 2011
www.astrophys-space-sci-trans.net/7/85/2011/
doi:10.5194/astra-7-85-2011
© Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Volume 7, issue 2

12 Apr 2011

Understanding cosmic rays and searching for exotic sources with PAMELA
P. Picozza, R. Sparvoli, and the "PAMELA collaboration"
University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Italy

Received: 09 Nov 2010 – Accepted: 27 Dec 2010 – Published: 12 Apr 2011

Abstract. The instrument PAMELA, in orbit since 15~June 2006 on board of the Russian satellite Resurs DK1, is designed to study charged particles in the cosmic radiation, with a particular focus on antimatter and signals of dark matter annihilation. PAMELA is also looking for primordial antinuclei, measuring light nuclei energy spectra, studying the mechanisms of acceleration and propagation of the cosmic rays in the Galaxy, and monitoring the solar activity and the radiation belts.

A review of the main experimental results obtained by PAMELA is presented in this paper. The observed anomalous positron excess is discussed in terms of annihilation of dark matter particles as well as in terms of standard astrophysical sources. Moreover constraints on dark matter models from antiproton data are shown.

Citation: Picozza, P., Sparvoli, R., and the "PAMELA collaboration": Understanding cosmic rays and searching for exotic sources with PAMELA, Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 7, 85-91, doi:10.5194/astra-7-85-2011, 2011.

Astrophysics and Space Sciences Transactions

An Open Access Journal of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Extraterrestrische Forschung e.V.