Direct detection of a break in the teraelectronvolt cosmic-ray spectrum of electrons and positrons
Creators: name: Ambrosi, G.
name: An, Q.
name: Asfandiyarov, R.
name: Azzarello, P.
name: Bernardini, P.
name: Bertucci, B.
name: Cai, M. S.
name: Chang, J.
name: Chen, D. Y.
name: Chen, H. F.
name: Chen, J. L.
name: Chen, W.
name: Cui, M. Y.
name: Cui, T. S.
name: D'Amone, A.
name: De Benedittis, A.
name: De Mitri, I.
name: Di Santo, M.
name: Dong, J. N.
name: Dong, T. K.
name: Dong, Y. F.
name: Dong, Z. X.
name: Donvito, G.
name: Droz, D.
name: Duan, K. K.
name: Duan, J. L.
name: Duranti, M.
name: D'Urso, D.
name: Fan, R. R.
name: Fan, Y. Z.
name: Fang, F.
name: Feng, C. Q.
name: Feng, L.
name: Fusco, P.
name: Gallo, V.
name: Gan, F. J.
name: Gao, M.
name: Gao, S. S.
name: Gargano, F.
name: Garrappa, S.
name: Gong, K.
name: Gong, Y. Z.
name: Guo, D. Y.
name: Guo, J. H.
name: Hu, Y. M.
name: Huang, G. S.
name: Huang, Y. Y.
name: Ionica, M.
name: Jiang, D.
name: Jiang, W.
name: Jin, X.
name: Kong, J.
name: Lei, S. J.
name: Li, S.
name: Li, X.
name: Li, W. L.
name: Li, Y.
name: Liang, Y. F.
name: Liang, Y. M.
name: Liao, N. H.
name: Liu, H.
name: Liu, J.
name: Liu, S. B.
name: Liu, W. Q.
name: Liu, Y.
name: Loparco, F.
name: Ma, M.
name: Ma, P. X.
name: Ma, S. Y.
name: Ma, T.
name: Ma, X. Q.
name: Ma, X. Y.
name: Marsella, G.
name: Mazziotta, M. N.
name: Mo, D.
name: Niu, X. Y.
name: Peng, X. Y.
name: Peng, W. X.
name: Qiao, R.
name: Rao, J. N.
name: Salinas, M. M.
name: Shang, G. Z.
name: Shen, W. H.
name: Shen, Z. Q.
name: Shen, Z. T.
name: Song, J. X.
name: Su, H.
name: Su, M.
name: Sun, Z. Y.
name: Surdo, A.
name: Teng, X. J.
name: Tian, X. B.
name: Tykhonov, A.
name: Vagelli, V.
name: Vitillo, S.
name: Wang, C.
name: Wang, H.
name: Wang, H. Y.
name: Wang, J. Z.
name: Wang, L. G.
name: Wang, Q.
name: Wang, S.
name: Wang, X. H.
name: Wang, X. L.
name: Wang, Y. F.
name: Wang, Y. P.
name: Wang, Y. Z.
name: Wen, S. C.
name: Wang, Z. M.
name: Wei, D. M.
name: Wei, J. J.
name: Wei, Y. F.
name: Wu, D.
name: Wu, J.
name: Wu, L. B.
name: Wu, S. S.
name: Wu, X.
name: Xi, K.
name: Xia, Z. Q.
name: Xin, Y. L.
name: Xu, H. T.
name: Xu, Z. L.
name: Xu, Z. Z.
name: Xue, G. F.
name: Yang, H. B.
name: Yang, P.
name: Yang, Y. Q.
name: Yang, Z. L.
name: Yao, H. J.
name: Yu, Y. H.
name: Yuan, Q.
name: Yue, C.
name: Zang, J. J.
name: Zhang, C.
name: Zhang, D. L.
name: Zhang, F.
name: Zhang, J. B.
name: Zhang, J. Y.
name: Zhang, J. Z.
name: Zhang, L.
name: Zhang, P. F.
name: Zhang, S. X.
name: Zhang, W. Z.
name: Zhang, Y.
name: Zhang, Y. J.
name: Zhang, Y. Q.
name: Zhang, Y. L.
name: Zhang, Y. P.
name: Zhang, Z.
name: Zhang, Z. Y.
name: Zhao, H.
name: Zhao, H. Y.
name: Zhao, X. F.
name: Zhou, C. Y.
name: Zhou, Y.
name: Zhu, X.
name: Zhu, Y.
name: Zimmer, S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: High energy cosmic ray electrons plus positrons (CREs), which lose energy quickly during their propagation, provide an ideal probe of Galactic high-energy processes and may enable the observation of phenomena such as dark-matter particle annihilation or decay. The CRE spectrum has been directly measured up to $\sim 2$ TeV in previous balloon- or space-borne experiments, and indirectly up to $\sim 5$ TeV by ground-based Cherenkov $γ$-ray telescope arrays. Evidence for a spectral break in the TeV energy range has been provided by indirect measurements of H.E.S.S., although the results were qualified by sizeable systematic uncertainties. Here we report a direct measurement of CREs in the energy range $25~{\rm GeV}-4.6~{\rm TeV}$ by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) with unprecedentedly high energy resolution and low background. The majority of the spectrum can be properly fitted by a smoothly broken power-law model rather than a single power-law model. The direct detection of a spectral break at $E \sim0.9$ TeV confirms the evidence found by H.E.S.S., clarifies the behavior of the CRE spectrum at energies above 1 TeV and sheds light on the physical origin of the sub-TeV CREs.
description: 18 pages, 6 figures, Nature in press, doi:10.1038/nature24475