The High-Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) telescope has recently detected the total electron-plus-positron ($e^{+}{e}^{-}$) flux up to 40 TeV, finding it to be a featureless and steeply falling power law above 1 TeV. This result is in stark tension with standard one-zone models of pulsar $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ injection and diffusion, which predict a hard-spectrum signal above $\sim 10\mathrm{TeV}$. We model the local pulsar population, and find 21 sources that would each individually overproduce the H.E.S.S. $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ flux in a one-zone diffusion model. We conclude that every energetic pulsar younger than $\sim 500\mathrm{kyr}$ must be surrounded by a region of inhibited diffusion (e.g., a supernova remnant, pulsar wind nebula, or TeV halo) that prevents the transport of these $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ to Earth. Because the high-electron density in these regions produces bright synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission, we conclude that all nearby pulsars are detectable as (potentially unassociated) radio, x-ray or $\gamma$-ray sources.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Cosmic ray composition & spectra
• Cosmic ray propagation
• Cosmic ray sources
• Cosmic rays & astroparticles
• Neutron stars & pulsars