Cosmic rays from pulsars and magnetars

Abstract

We compare the expected abundance of cosmic ray electrons and positrons from pulsars and magnetars. We assume that the distribution of infant pulsars and magnetars follows that of high-mass stars in the Milky Way and that the production rate of cosmic rays is proportional to the spin-down and magnetic-decay power of pulsars and magnetars, respectively. In combination with primary and secondary cosmic ray leptons from other sources (especially supernova remnants), we find that both magnetars and pulsars can easily account for the observed cosmic ray spectrum, in particular the dip seen by HESS (High-Energy Stereoscopic System) at several TeV and the increase in positron fraction found by PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Exploration and Light Nuclei Astrophysics). © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.