Fiorenza Donato

• INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare

The cosmic-ray flux of positrons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. The hypothesis that pulsars and their nebulae can significantly contribute to the excess of the AMS-02 positron flux has been consolidated after the observation of a γ-ray emission at GeV and TeV energies of a few degree size around a f...

The cosmic-ray flux of positrons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. The hypothesis that pulsars and their nebulae can significantly contribute to the excess of the AMS-02 positron flux has been consolidated after the observation of a $\gamma$-ray emission at GeV and TeV energies of a few degree size aro...

Geminga is the first pulsar around which a remarkable gamma-ray halo extending over a few degrees was discovered at TeV energies by MILAGRO and HAWC and later by H.E.S.S., and by -LAT in the GeV band. More middle-aged pulsars have exhibited gamma-ray halos, and they are now recognised as an emerging class of Galactic gamma-ray sources. The emission...

The nature of the GeV gamma-ray Galactic Center excess (GCE) in the data of Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) is still to be unveiled. We present a new analysis of the inner Galaxy Fermi-LAT data at energies above 10 GeV, based on an innovative method which combines the skyFACT adaptive template fitting with and the 1pPDF pixel-count statistics. We...

Cosmological simulations play a pivotal role in understanding the properties of the dark matter (DM) distribution in both galactic and galaxy-cluster environments. The characterization of DM structures is crucial for informing indirect DM searches, aiming at the detection of the annihilation (or decay) products of DM particles. A fundamental quanti...

The cosmic-ray fluxes of electrons and positrons ( e^{±} e ± ) are measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. To infer a precise interpretation of the production processes for e^{±} e ± in our Galaxy, it is necessary to have an accurate description of the secondary component, produced by the interaction of cosmic-...

The Galactic flux of cosmic-ray (CR) positrons in the GeV to TeV energy range is very likely due to different Galactic components. One of these is the inelastic scattering of CR nuclei with the atoms of the interstellar medium. The precise amount of this component determines the eventual contribution from other sources. We present here a new estima...

The flux of γ rays is measured with unprecedented accuracy by the Fermi Large Area Telescope from 100 MeV to almost 1 TeV. In the future, the Cherenkov Telescope Array will have the capability to measure photons up to 100 TeV. To accurately interpret this data, precise predictions of the production processes, specifically the cross section for the...

The Galactic flux of cosmic-ray (CR) positrons in the GeV to TeV energy range is very likely due to different Galactic components. One of these is the inelastic scattering of CR nuclei with the atoms of the interstellar medium. The precise amount of this component determines the eventual contribution from other sources. We present here a new estima...

The flux of $\gamma$ rays is measured with unprecedented accuracy by the $Fermi$ Large Area Telescope from 100 MeV to almost 1 TeV. In the future, the Cherenkov Telescope Array will have the capability to measure photons up to 100 TeV. To accurately interpret this data, precise predictions of the production processes, specifically the cross section...

The cosmic-ray fluxes of electrons and positrons (e±) are measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. To infer a precise interpretation of the production processes for e± in our Galaxy, it is necessary to have an accurate description of the secondary component, produced by the interaction of cosmic-ray proton and h...

The cosmic-ray fluxes of electrons and positrons ($e^{\pm}$) are measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. To infer a precise interpretation of the production processes for $e^{\pm}$ in our Galaxy, it is necessary to have an accurate description of the secondary component, produced by the interaction of cosmic-ra...

This white paper discusses the current landscape and prospects for experiments sensitive to particle dark matter processes producing photons and cosmic rays. Much of the gamma-ray sky remains unexplored on a level of sensitivity that would enable the discovery of a dark matter signal. Currently operating GeV-TeV observatories, such as Fermi-LAT, at...

Cosmological simulations predict dark matter to form bound structures (i.e. main halos), hosting galaxies and eventually a population of less massive dark matter over-densities, (i.e. sub-halos). The determination of the spatial dark matter distribution in halos and sub-halos is one major challenge in the analysis of galaxy formation simulations, a...

The cosmic-ray flux of positrons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. The hypothesis that pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) can significantly contribute to the excess of the positron (e ⁺ ) cosmic-ray flux has been consolidated after the observation of a γ-ray emission at TeV energies of a few degree size around...

The nature of the GeV gamma-ray Galactic center excess (GCE) in the data of Fermi-LAT is still under investigation. Different techniques, such as template fitting and photon-count statistical methods, have been applied in the past few years in order to disentangle between a GCE coming from sub-threshold point sources or rather from diffuse emission...

The cosmic-ray flux of positrons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. The hypothesis that pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) can significantly contribute to the excess of the positron ( e +) cosmic-ray flux has been consolidated after the observation of a γ -ray emission at TeV energies of a few degree size aroun...

Numerous extended sources around Galactic pulsars have shown significant γ-ray emission from GeV to TeV energies, revealing hundreds of TeV energy electrons scattering off of the underlying photon fields through inverse Compton scattering (ICS). HAWC TeV gamma-ray observations of few-degree extended emission around the pulsars Geminga and Monogem,...

We combine adaptive template fitting and pixel count statistics in order to assess the nature of the Galactic Center excess in Fermi-LAT data. We reconstruct the flux distribution of point sources well below the Fermi-LAT detection threshold, and measure their radial and longitudinal profiles in the inner Galaxy. We find that all point sources and...

The latest AMS-02 data on cosmic-ray electrons show a break in the energy spectrum around 40 GeV, with a change in the slope of about 0.1. We perform a combined fit to the newest AMS-02 positron and electron flux data above 10 GeV using a semianalytical diffusion model where sources include production of pairs from pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), elect...

The cosmic-ray flux of positrons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometer AMS-02. The hypothesis that pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) can significantly contribute to the excess of the positron ($e^+$) cosmic-ray flux has been consolidated after the observation of a $\gamma$-ray emission at TeV energies of a few degree siz...

The propagation of cosmic-ray electrons and positrons in the proximity of the Geminga pulsar is examined considering the transition from the quasi-ballistic, valid for the most recently injected particles, to the diffusive transport regime. For typical interstellar values of the diffusion coefficient, the quasi-ballistic regime dominates the lepton...

We combine adaptive template fitting and pixel count statistics in order to assess the nature of the Galactic center excess in Fermi-LAT data. We reconstruct the flux distribution of point sources in the inner Galaxy well below the Fermi-LAT detection threshold, and measure their radial and longitudinal profiles. Point sources and diffuse emission...

Numerous extended sources around Galactic pulsars have shown significant $\gamma$-ray emission from GeV to TeV energies, revealing hundreds of TeV energy electrons scattering off of the underlying photon fields through inverse Compton scattering (ICS). HAWC TeV gamma-ray observations of few-degree extended emission around the pulsars Geminga and Mo...

The latest AMS-02 data on cosmic ray electrons show a break in the energy spectrum around 40 GeV, with a change in the slope of about 0.1. We perform a combined fit to the newest AMS-02 positron and electron flux data using a model which includes production of pairs from pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), electrons from supernova remnants (SNRs) and both...

The hypothesis that pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) can significantly contribute to the excess of the positron (e+) cosmic-ray flux has been consolidated after the observation of a γ-ray emission at TeV energies of a few degree size around Geminga and Monogem PWNe, and at GeV energies for Geminga at a much larger extension. The γ-ray halos around these...

Recently, a few-degrees extended γ-ray halo in the direction of the Geminga pulsar has been detected by HAWC, Milagro and Fermi-LAT. These observations can be interpreted with positrons (e+) and electrons (e−) accelerated by the Geminga pulsar wind nebula (PWN), released in a Galactic environment with a low diffusion coefficient (D0), and inverse C...

The global contribution of unresolved gamma-ray point sources to the extragalactic gamma-ray background has been recently measured down to gamma-ray fluxes lower than those reached with standard source detection techniques, and by employing the statistical properties of the observed gamma-ray counts. We investigate and exploit the complementarity o...

The HAWC Collaboration has discovered a γ -ray emission extended about 2 degrees around the Geminga and Monogem pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) at γ -ray energies E γ > 5 TeV. We analyze, for the first time, almost 10 years of γ -ray data obtained with the Fermi Large Area Telescope at E γ > 8 GeV in the direction of Geminga and Monogem. Since these two...

The hypothesis that pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) can significantly contribute to the excess of the positron ($e^+$) cosmic-ray flux has been consolidated after the observation of a $\gamma$-ray emission at TeV energies of a few degree size around Geminga and Monogem PWNe, and at GeV energies for Geminga at a much larger extension. The $\gamma$-ray ha...

The HAWC Collaboration has discovered a γ-ray emission extended about 2 degrees around the Geminga and Monogem pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) at γ-ray energies Eγ>5 TeV. We analyze, for the first time, almost 10 years of γ-ray data obtained with the Fermi Large Area Telescope at Eγ>8 GeV in the direction of Geminga and Monogem. Since these two pulsars...

The global contribution of unresolved gamma-ray point sources to the extragalactic gamma-ray background has been recently measured down to gamma-ray fluxes lower than those reached with standard source detection techniques, and by employing the statistical properties of the observed gamma-ray counts. We investigate and exploit the complementarity o...

Recently, a few-degrees extended $\gamma$-ray halo in the direction of Geminga pulsar has been detected by HAWC, Milagro and Fermi-LAT. These observations can be interpreted with positrons ($e^+$) and electrons ($e^-$) accelerated by Geminga pulsar wind nebula (PWN), released in a Galactic environment with a low diffusion coefficient ($D_0$), and i...

The data on the inclusive flux of cosmic positrons and electrons ($e^++e^{-}$) have been recently collected from GeV to tens of TeV energies by several experiments with unprecedented precision. In addition, the Fermi-LAT Collaboration has provided a new energy spectrum for the upper bounds on the $e^++e^{-}$ dipole anisotropy. This observable can b...

The HAWC Collaboration has discovered a $\gamma$-ray emission extended about 2 degrees around the Geminga and Monogem pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) at $\gamma$-ray energies $E_\gamma >5$ TeV. We analyze, for the first time, almost 10 years of $\gamma$-ray data obtained with the Fermi Large Area Telescope at $E_\gamma >$ 8 GeV in the direction of Gemin...

The origin of cosmic-ray positrons detected with an energy above 10 GeV is one of the most intriguing mysteries in Astroparticle Physics. Different interpretations have been invoked to solve this puzzle such as pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), supernovae remnants or interactions of dark matter particles. The HAWC and Milagro experiments have measured an...

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.049901

The data on the inclusive flux of cosmic positrons and electrons ($e^++e^{-}$) have been recently collected from GeV to tens of TeV energies by several experiments with unprecedented precision. In addition, the Fermi-LAT Collaboration has provided a new energy spectrum for the upper bounds on the $e^++e^{-}$ dipole anisotropy. This observable can b...

The cosmic-ray flux of antiprotons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometers AMS-02.Its interpretation requires a correct description of the dominant production process for antiprotons in our Galaxy, namely, the interaction of cosmic-ray proton and helium with the interstellar medium. In the light of new cross sectio...

The cosmic-ray flux of antiprotons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometers AMS-02.Its interpretation requires a correct description of the dominant production process for antiprotons in our Galaxy, namely, the interaction of cosmic-ray proton and helium with the interstellar medium. In the light of new cross sectio...

Cosmic rays are an important tool to study dark matter annihilation in our Galaxy. Recently, a possible hint for dark matter annihilation was found in the antiproton spectrum measured by AMS-02, even though the result might be affected by theoretical uncertainties. A complementary way to test its dark matter interpretation would be the observation...

Cosmic rays are an important tool to study dark matter annihilation in our Galaxy. Recently, a possible hint for dark matter annihilation was found in the antiproton spectrum measured by AMS-02, even though the result might be affected by theoretical uncertainties. A complementary way to test its dark matter interpretation would be the observation...

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration has recently released the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL), which contains 1556 sources detected above 10 GeV with seven years of Pass 8 data. We investigate the source count distribution of 3FHL sources at Galactic latitudes $|b|>20^{\circ}$, where the sources are mostly blazars. We...

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration has recently released the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL), which contains 1556 sources detected above 10 GeV with seven years of Pass 8 data. We investigate the source count distribution of 3FHL sources at Galactic latitudes $|b|>20^{\circ}$, where the sources are mostly blazars. We...

Gamma-ray searches for new physics such as dark matter are often driven by investigating the composition of the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). Classic approaches to EGB decomposition manifest in resolving individual point sources and dissecting the intensity spectrum of the remaining unresolved component. However, statistical methods hav...

Gamma-ray searches for new physics such as dark matter are often driven by investigating the composition of the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). Classic approaches to EGB decomposition manifest in resolving individual point sources and dissecting the intensity spectrum of the remaining unresolved component. Furthermore, statistical methods...

Numerical simulations of structure formation have made remarkable progress in recent years, in particular due to the inclusion of baryonic physics evolving with the dark matter component. We generate Monte Carlo realizations of the dark matter subhalo population based on the results of the recent hydrodynamical simulation suite of Milky Way–sized g...

After the breakthrough from the satellite-borne PAMELA detector, the flux of cosmic-ray (CR) antiprotons has been provided with unprecedented accuracy by AMS-02 on the International Space Station. Its data spans an energy range from below one GeV up to 400 GeV and most of the data points contain errors below the amazing level of 5%. The bulk of the...

After the breakthrough from the satellite-borne PAMELA detector, the flux of cosmic-ray (CR) antiprotons has been provided with unprecedented accuracy by AMS-02 on the International Space Station. Its data spans an energy range from below 1 GeV up to 400 GeV and most of the data points contain errors below the amazing level of 5%. The bulk of the a...

The flux of positrons and electrons ($e^+ + e^-$) has been measured by the $Fermi$ Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the energy range between 7~GeV and 2~TeV. We discuss a number of interpretations of Pass 8 $Fermi$-LAT $e^+ + e^-$ spectrum, combining electron and positron emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), or produ...

The flux of positrons and electrons ($e^+ + e^-$) has been measured by the $Fermi$ Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the energy range between 7 GeV and 2 TeV. We discuss a number of interpretations of Pass 8 $Fermi$-LAT $e^+ + e^-$ spectrum, combining electron and positron emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), or produ...

High energy cosmic ray electrons and positrons probe the local properties of our Galaxy. In fact, electromagnetic energy losses limit the typical propagation scale of GeV-TeV electrons and positrons to a few kpc. In the diffusion model, nearby and dominant sources may produce an observable dipole anisotropy in the cosmic ray fluxes. We present a de...

The cosmic electrons and positrons have been measured with unprecedented statistics up to several hundreds GeV, thus permitting to explore the role that close single sources can have in shaping the flux at different energies. In the present analysis, we consider electrons and positrons in cosmic rays to be produced by spallations of hadron fluxes w...

The cosmic electrons and positrons have been measured with unprecedented statistics up to several hundreds GeV, thus permitting to explore the role that close single sources can have in shaping the flux at different energies. In the present analysis, we consider electrons and positrons in cosmic rays to be produced by spallations of hadron fluxes w...

Numerical simulations of structure formation have recorded a remarkable progress in the recent years, in particular due to the inclusion of baryonic physics evolving with the dark matter component. We generate Monte Carlo realizations of the dark matter sub-halo population based on the results of the recent hydrodynamical simulation suite of Milky...

We perform a detailed quantitative analysis of the recent AMS-02 electron and positron data. We investigate the interplay between the emission from primary astrophysical sources, namely Supernova Remnants and Pulsar Wind Nebulae, and the contribution from a dark matter annihilation or decay signal. Our aim is to assess the information that can be d...

Statistical properties of photon count maps have recently been proven as a new tool to study the composition of the gamma-ray sky with high precision. We employ the 1-point probability distribution function of 6 years of Fermi-LAT data to measure the source-count distribution dN/dS and the diffuse components of the high-latitude gamma-ray sky as a...

Statistical properties of photon count maps have recently been proven as a new tool to study the composition of the gamma-ray sky with high precision. We employ the 1-point probability distribution function of 6 years of Fermi-LAT data to measure the source-count distribution dN/dS and the diffuse components of the high-latitude gamma-ray sky as a...

The source-count distribution as a function of their flux, dN/dS, is one of the main quantities characterizing gamma-ray source populations. We employ statistical properties of the Fermi-LAT photon counts map to measure the composition of the extragalactic gamma-ray sky at high latitudes (|b|>30 deg) between 1 GeV and 10 GeV. We present a new metho...

Analogously to globular clusters, the dense stellar environment of the Galactic center has been proposed to host a large population of as-yet undetected millisecond pulsars (MSPs). Recently, this hypothesis found support in the analysis of gamma rays from the inner Galaxy seen by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi satellite, which reve...

A new estimation of the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background (IGRB) observed by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) has been presented for 50 months of data, in the energy range 100 MeV-820 GeV and for different modelings of the Galactic foreground. We attempt here the interpretation of the Fermi-LA...

Gamma rays from young pulsars and milli-second pulsars are expected to contribute to the diffuse gamma-ray emission measured by the {\it Fermi} Large Area Telescope (LAT) at high latitudes. We derive the contribution of the pulsars undetected counterpart by using information from radio to gamma rays and we show that they explain only a small fracti...

Radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) are expected to contribute substantially to both the intensity and anisotropy of the isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB). In turn, the measured properties of the IGRB can be used to constrain the characteristics of proposed contributing source classes. We consider individual subclasses of radio-loud AGN, in...

Theoretical predictions for the cosmic antiproton spectrum currently fall short of the corresponding experimental level of accuracy. Among the main sources of uncertainty are the antiproton production cross sections in cosmic ray inelastic interactions. We analyse existing data on antiproton production in $pp$ scattering, including for the first ti...

The nature of the Isotropic $\gamma$-ray Background (IGRB) measured by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi $\gamma$-ray space Telescope ({\it Fermi}) remains partially unexplained. Non-negligible contributions may originate from extragalactic populations of unresolved sources such as blazars, star-forming galaxies or galactic milli-second p...

The interaction between the galactic magnetic field and the non-thermal population of electrons is responsible for a large part of the radio sky from 10 MHz up to several GHz. This population is mostly composed of electrons with primary and secondary origin. Cosmic ray propagation models describe their evolution in space and energy, and allow to st...

A review is given of the main properties of the charged component of galactic cosmic rays, particles detected at Earth with an energy spanning from tens of MeV up to about 10^19 eV. After a short introduction to the topic and an historical overview, the properties of cosmic rays are discussed with respect to different energy ranges. The origin and...

It is well established that phenomenological two-zone diffusion models of the galactic halo can very well reproduce cosmic-ray nuclear data and the observed antiproton flux. Here, we consider lepton propagation in such models and compute the expected galactic population of electrons, as well as the diffuse synchrotron emission that results from the...

The spectrum of an isotropic extragalactic {\gamma}-ray background (EGB) has been measured by the Fermi-LAT telescope at high latitudes. Two new models for the EGB are derived from the subraction of unresolved point sources and extragalactic diffuse processes, which could explain from 30% to 70% of the Fermi-LAT EGB. Within the hypothesis that the...

Recent PAMELA and ATIC data seem to indicate an excess in positron cosmic rays above approximately 10 GeV which might be due to galactic Dark Matter particle annihilation. However the background of this signal suffers many uncertainties that make our task difficult in constraining Dark Matter or any other astrophysical explanation for these recent...

Antideuterons are among the most promising galactic cosmic ray-related targets for dark matter indirect detection. Currently only upper limits exist on the flux, but the development of new experiments, such as GAPS and AMS-02, provides exciting perspectives for a positive measurement in the near future. In this Paper, we present a novel and updated...

Antideuterons are among the most promising galactic cosmic ray-related targets for dark matter indirect detection. Currently only upper limits exist on the flux, but the development of new experiments, such as GAPS and AMS-02, provides exciting perspectives for a positive measurement in the near future. In this Paper, we present a novel and updated...

We discuss the potentials of several experimental configurations dedicated to direct measurements of charged cosmic ray (CR) nuclei at energies ≳100 GeV/n. Within a two-zone propagation model for stable CRs, we calculate light primary and secondary nuclei fluxes for different diffusion and acceleration schemes. We show that the new detectors exploi...

Extra dimensions offer new ways to address long-standing problems in beyond-the-standard-model particle physics. In some classes of extra-dimensional models, the lightest Kaluza-Klein particle is a viable dark matter candidate. In this work, we study indirect detection of Kaluza-Klein dark matter via its annihilation into antiprotons. We use a soph...

We use the constraints on the diffusion parameters as obtained with stable nuclei to calculate the cosmic antiproton flux from annihilating relic neutralinos. We discuss the relevance of each characteristic parameter, describing our two dimension diffusion model, on the flux of antiprotons produced in the dark halo of our Galaxy. We estimate a two...

We present the results on the source spectrum function for primary nuclei in galactic cosmic rays, where two distinct energy dependences are used for the source spectra. We discuss the evolution of the goodness of fit to B/C data with the propagation parameters and also show that the results are not much affected by a different choice for the diffu...

Cosmic Ray nuclei in the energy range 100 MeV/nuc - 100 GeV/nuc provide crucial information about the physical properties of the Galaxy. They can also be used to answer questions related to astroparticle physics. This paper reviews the results obtained in this direction, with a strong bias towards the work done by the authors at {\sc lapth}, {\sc i...

In a previous study (Maurin et al., 2001), we explored the set of parameters describing diffusive propagation of cosmic rays (galactic convection, reacceleration, halo thickness, spectral index and normalization of the diffusion coefficient), and we identified those giving a good fit to the measured B/C ratio. This study is now extended to take int...

In the present paper, we extend the analysis of Maurin et al. (2001) and Donato et al. (2001) to the $\beta$-radioactive nuclei $^{10}$Be, $^{26}$Al and $^{36}$Cl. These species are be shown to be particularly sensitive to the properties of the local interstellar medium (LISM). As studies of the LISM suggest that we live in an underdense bubble of...

In the present paper, we extend the analysis of Maurin et al. (2001) and Donato et al. (2001) to the $\beta$-radioactive nuclei $^{10}$Be, $^{26}$Al and $^{36}$Cl. These species are be shown to be particularly sensitive to the properties of the local interstellar medium (LISM). As studies of the LISM suggest that we live in an underdense bubble of...

We present a recent calculation of the secondary positron flux at Earth obtained in a self-consistent propagation model. We also derive the positron on total positron and electron fraction and compare our results with the Pamela data.