Speaker: Dan Hooper

Fermilab

HAWC, Pulsars and The High-Energy Sky

Abstract: 

Recent measurements of nearby pulsars by the HAWC gamma-ray telescope indicate that these objects generate significant fluxes of very high-energy electrons and positrons. These observations can be used to calculate the contributions from these sources to the local cosmic-ray positron spectrum. Among the models that are capable of reproducing the observed characteristics of the gamma-ray emission, it can be shown that pulsars produce a flux of high-energy positrons that is similar in spectrum and magnitude to the "positron excess" as measured by PAMELA and AMS-02. Furthermore, these observations suggest that the the Milky Way's very high energy gamma-ray emission is likely to be dominated by the "TeV Halos" surrounding young pulsars. I will discuss several interesting implications of these results, including those for gamma-ray, cosmic-ray and neutrino astrophysics.