Is PSR J0855−4644 responsible for the 1.4 TeV electron spectral bump hinted by DAMPE?. Issue 4 (27th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bao, Yiwei; Chen, Yang; Liu, Siming
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 500:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 4573
• Page End: 4577
• Publication Date: 2020-10-27
• Subjects: diffusion -- cosmic rays -- ISM: individual objects (G267.0−01.0) -- ISM: supernova remnants; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa3311
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

ABSTRACT: DAMPE observation on the cosmic ray electron spectrum hints a narrow excess at ∼1.4 TeV. Although the excess can be ascribed to dark matter particles, pulsars and pulsar wind nebulae are believed to be more natural astrophysical origins: electrons injected from nearby pulsars at their early ages can form a bump-like feature in the spectrum due to radiative energy losses. In this paper, with a survey of nearby pulsars, we filter out four pulsars that may have notable contributions to ∼1.4 TeV cosmic ray electrons. Among them, PSR J0855−4644 has a spin-down luminosity more than 50 times higher than others and presumably dominates the electron fluxes from them. X-ray observations on the inner compact part (which may represent a tunnel for the transport of electrons from the pulsar) of PWN G267.0−01.0 are then used to constrain the spectral index of high-energy electrons injected by the pulsar. We show that high-energy electrons released by PSR J0855−4644 could indeed reproduce the 1.4 TeV spectral feature hinted by the DAMPE with reasonable parameters.