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Solar gamma ray probe of local cosmic ray electrons

Hong-Gang Yang1,2, Yu Gao3, Yin-Zhe Ma4,5,1,*, and Roland M. Crocker6

  • 1Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210023, China
  • 2School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
  • 3Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 4Department of Physics, Stellenbosch University, Matieland 7602, South Africa
  • 5National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS), Stellenbosch, Matieland 7602, South Africa
  • 6Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia

  • *Corresponding author: mayinzhe@sun.ac.za

Phys. Rev. D 108, L061304 – Published 25 September, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.L061304

Abstract

TeV-range cosmic ray electrons and positrons (CREs) have been directly measured in the search for new physics or unknown astrophysical sources. CREs can inverse-Compton scatter solar photons and boost their energies into gamma ray bands. Any potential CRE excess would enhance the resultant inverse Compton emission spectrum in the relevant energy range, offering a new window to verify the measured CRE spectrum. In this paper, we show that an excess in the TeV range of the CRE spectrum, such as the one indicated by the DAMPE experiment, can induce a characteristic solar gamma ray signal. Accounting for contamination from extragalactic gamma ray backgrounds (EGB), we forecast the DAMPE feature is testable (≳4σ) with a ∼105  m2 yr exposure in the off-disk direction. This can be achieved by long-exposure observations of water Cherenkov telescopes, such as LHAASO (7.2 years) and HAWC (25.9 years).

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