arXiv subjects

Xiao-Jun Bi

Publications and source records attributed to Xiao-Jun Bi.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Interpretation of the puzzling gamma-ray spectrum of the Geminga halo

The gamma-ray halo around Geminga is formed owing to the slow diffusion of the electrons released by the Geminga PWN. The latest HAWC and HESS observations exhibit complex features in the TeV gamma-ray spectrum of the Geminga halo. We first show that the new results cannot be interpreted by the commonly used simple model, where a single power-law injection spectrum and an energy index of $δ=1/3$ for the diffusion coefficient are assumed. We then propose a two-population electron injection model based on the x-ray observations of the Geminga PWN, which consists of a population of freshly accelerated electrons escaping from the PWN through rapid outflows and a population trapped longer inside the PWN before escaping. The two-population model interprets the HAWC and HESS data well, and the goodness of fit improves significantly compared with the single power-law injection model. It also predicts a different energy dependency of the gamma-ray profile from the single power-law model, which could be tested by LHAASO in the coming future. We note that a $δ$ slightly larger than 1 is needed to fit the HAWC and HESS data consistently. We also discuss the possible improvements by adopting the two-zone diffusion model.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Searching for Axion-Like Particles with the Blazar Observations of MAGIC and Fermi-LAT

We explore the axion-like particle (ALP)-photon oscillation effect in the $γ$-ray spectra of the blazars Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) and PG 1553+113, which are measured by the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes (MAGIC) and Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) with high precision. We investigate the constraints on the ALP parameter space using the Mrk 421 and PG 1553+113 observations of 15 and 5 phases, respectively. We find that the combined analysis with all the 15 phases improves the limits from the Mrk 421 observations. The combined limit set by the Mrk 421 observations has excluded the ALP parameter region with the ALP-photon coupling of $g_{aγ} \gtrsim 2 \times 10^{-11} \, \rm GeV^{-1}$ for the ALP mass of $\sim 8\times 10^{-9}\, {\rm eV} \lesssim m_a \lesssim 2\times 10^{-7}\rm \, eV$ at 95% $\rm C.L.$ We also find that the ALP hypothesis can slightly improve the fit to the PG 1553+113 results in some parameter regions, and do not set the limit in this case.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Limits on axion-like particles from Mrk 421 with 4.5-year period observations by ARGO-YBJ and Fermi-LAT

In this work, we investigate the axion-like particle (ALP)-photon oscillation effect in the spectra of the blazar Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) using 4.5 years of the Astrophysical Radiation with Ground-based Observatory at YangBaJing (ARGO-YBJ) and Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) data. These data are collected during the common operation time, which cover ten activity phases of Mrk 421. No significant ALP-photon oscillation effect is confirmed. On the other hand, not all the observations of the ten phases can be individually used to set the 95% confidence level ($\rm C.L.$) constraint on the ALP parameter space. However, the constraint can be significantly improved if the analyses for the ten phases are combined. We find that the upper limit at 95% $\rm C.L.$ on the ALP-photon coupling $g_{aγ}$ set by the ARGO-YBJ and Fermi-LAT observations of Mrk 421 is within $\sim [2\times 10^{-11}, \ 6\times 10^{-11}] \rm \, GeV^{-1}$ for the ALP mass of $\sim 5\times 10^{-10}$ eV $\lesssim m_a \lesssim 5\times 10^{-7}\, \rm eV$.

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arXiv2021

Exploring Fermionic Multiplet Dark Matter through Precision Measurements at the CEPC

New physics could be explored through loop effects by the precision measurements at the Circular Electron Positron Collider due to its clean collision environment and high luminosity. In this work, we focus on two dark matter models that involve additional electroweak fermionic multiplets. We calculate their one-loop corrections to five processes, i.e. $e^+e^- \to μ^+μ^-, ~Zh, ~ZZ, ~W^+W^-$, and $Zγ$, and investigate the corresponding signatures at CEPC with the projected sensitivity. We find that the detectable parameter regions of these processes are complementary. The combined analysis shows that the mass of dark matter $m_{χ^0_1}$ in these two models can be probed up to $ \sim 150~\mathrm{GeV}$ and $\sim 450$ GeV at a 95\% confidence level, respectively.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Detecting Axion Dark Matter through the Radio Signal from Omega Centauri

As a well-motivated dark matter candidate, axions can be detected through the axion-photon resonant conversion in the magnetospheres of magnetic white dwarf stars or neutron stars. In this work, we utilize Omega Centauri, which is the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way and is suggested to be the remnant core of a dwarf galaxy, to probe the axion dark matter through radio signals that originate from all the neutron stars and magnetic white dwarf stars in it. With 100 hours of observation, the combination of SKA phase 1 and LOFAR can effectively probe the parameter space of the axion-photon coupling $g_{aγ}$ up to $10^{-14}\sim 10^{-15}~\text{GeV}^{-1}$ for the axion mass range of $0.1\sim 30 ~μ\text{eV}$. Depending on the choice of neutron star evolution model, this limitation is two or three and a half orders of magnitude higher than that of the single neutron star or magnetic white dwarf.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Constraints on the spatially dependent cosmic-ray propagation model from Bayesian Analysis

The energy spectra of primary and secondary cosmic rays (CR) generally harden at several hundreds of GeV, which can be naturally interpreted by propagation effects. We adopt a spatially dependent CR propagation model to fit the spectral hardening, where a slow-diffusion disk (SDD) is assumed near the Galactic plane. We aim to constrain the propagation parameters with the Bayesian parameter estimation based on a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm. The latest precise measurements of carbon spectrum and B/C ratio are adopted in the Bayesian analysis. The $\rm{^{10}Be/^{9}Be}$ and Be/B ratios are also included to break parameter degeneracies. The fitting result shows that all the parameters are well constrained. Especially, the thickness of the SDD is limited to 0.4-0.5 kpc above and below the Galactic plane, which could be the best constraint for the slow-diffusion region among similar works. The $\bar{p}/p$ ratio and amplitude of CR anisotropy predicted by the SDD model are consistent with the observations, while the predicted high-energy electron and positron fluxes are slightly and significantly lower than the observations, respectively, indicating the necessity of extra sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Self-consistent interpretations of the multi-wavelength gamma-ray spectrum of LHAASO J0621$+$3755

LHAASO J0621$+$3755 is a TeV gamma-ray halo newly identified by LHAASO-KM2A. It is likely to be generated by electrons trapped in a slow-diffusion zone around PSR J0622$+$3749 through inverse Compton scattering. When the gamma-ray spectrum of LHAASO-KM2A is fitted, the GeV fluxes derived by the commonly used one-zone normal diffusion model for electron propagation are significantly higher than the upper limits (ULs) of Fermi-LAT. In this work, we respectively adopt the one-zone superdiffusion and two-zone normal diffusion models to solve this conflict. For the superdiffusion scenario, we find that a model with superdiffusion index $α\lesssim1.2$ can meet the constraints of Fermi-LAT observation. For the two-zone diffusion scenario, the size of the slow-diffusion zone is required to be smaller than $\sim50$ pc, which is consistent with theoretical expectations. Future precise measurements of the Geminga halo may further distinguish between these two scenarios for the electron propagation in pulsar halos.

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arXiv2021

Explore the Axion Dark Matter through the Radio Signals from Magnetic White Dwarf Stars

Axion as one of the promising dark matter candidates can be detected through narrow radio lines emitted from the magnetic white dwarf stars. Due to the existence of the strong magnetic field, the axion may resonantly convert into the radio photon (Primakoff effect) when it passes through a narrow region in the corona of the magnetic white dwarf, where the plasma frequency is equal to the axion mass. We show that for the magnetic white dwarf WD 2010+310, the future experiment SKA phase 1 with 100 hours of observation can effectively probe the parameter space of the axion-photon coupling $g_{aγ}$ up to $\sim 10^{-12}~ \text{GeV}^{-1}$ for the axion mass range of $0.2 \sim 3.7~ μ$eV. Note that in the low mass region ($m_a \lesssim 1.5 ~μ\text{eV}$), the WD 2010+310 could give greater sensitivity than the neutron star RX J0806.4-4123.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Geminga SNR: Possible candidate of local cosmic-ray factory

The precise measurements of energy spectra and anisotropy could help us uncover the local cosmic-ray accelerators. Our recent works have shown that spectral hardening above $200$ GeV in the energy spectra and transition of large-scale anisotropy at $\sim 100$ TeV are of local source origin. Less than $100$ TeV, both spectral hardening and anisotropy explicitly indicate the dominant contribution from nearby sources. In this work, we further investigate the parameter space of sources allowed by the observational energy spectra and anisotropy amplitude. To obtain the best-fit source parameters, a numerical package to compute the parameter posterior distributions based on Bayesian inference, which is applied to perform an elaborate scan of parameter space. We find that by combining the energy spectra and anisotropy data, the permissible range of location and age of local source is considerably reduced. When comparing with the current local SNR catalog, only Geminga SNR could be the proper candidate of the local cosmic-ray source.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Galactic cosmic ray propagation: sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray and neutrino emission

The Tibet ASgamma experiment just reported their measurement of sub-PeV diffuse gamma ray emission from the Galactic disk, with the highest energy up to 957 TeV. These gamma-rays are most likely the hadronic origin by cosmic ray interaction with interstellar gas in the Galaxy. This measurement provides direct evidence to the hypothesis that the Galactic cosmic rays can be accelerated beyond PeV energies. In this work, we try to explain the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray spectrum within cosmic rays diffusive propagation model. We find there is a tension between the sub-PeV diffuse gamma rays and the local cosmic ray spectrum. To describe the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray flux, it generally requires larger local cosmic-ray flux than measurement in the knee region. We further calculate the PeV neutrino flux from the cosmic ray propagation model. Even all of these sub-PeV diffuse gamma rays originate from the propagation, the Galactic neutrinos only account for less than ~15% of observed flux, most of which are still from extragalactic sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Constraining the cosmic ray propagation halo thickness using Fermi-LAT observations of high-latitude clouds

As a basic characteristic of cosmic ray (CR) propagation, the diffusive halo can advance our understanding of many CR-related studies and indirect dark matter. The method to derive the halo size usually has degeneracy problems thus affected by large uncertainties. The diffusion gamma ray from high-latitude clouds might shed light on the halo size independently. Since the spatially dependent propagation (SDP) model has a better agreement with the observed CRs, compared with conventional propagation model, in this work, we investigate the halo thickness based on SDP model with Fermi-LAT $\rmγ$-ray observation on the high- and intermediate-velocity clouds. As a result, in order not to exceed the relative $γ$-ray emissivity in the high-latitude clouds, halo thickness should be in the range of $\rm ~3.3\sim9~ kpc$. Moreover, the spatial morphology of $\rmγ$-rays estimated based on SDP model under different values of halo thickness are distinctive, which provides us a tool to determine the halo size. We hope that our model could be tested and tuned by multi-wavelength observations in the future.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Axion and dark photon limits from Crab Nebula high energy gamma-rays

The observation of cosmic sub-PeV gamma-rays from the Crab Nebula opens up the possibility of testing cosmic ray photon transparency at the multi-hundred TeV scale. Assuming no deviation from a source gamma-ray emission due to accelerated electron inverse-Compton scattering, higher event energies can extend constraints on the effects of new physics; We consider oscillation between gamma-rays and axions/dark photons, plus attenuation effects from gamma-ray absorption in the case of dark photon dark matter. Combining the recent AS$γ$ and HAWC sub-PeV data with earlier MAGIC and HEGRA data, axion-like particles are most constrained in the $10^{-7}-10^{-6}$ eV mass range, where the coupling $g_{aγ}$ is constrained to be below ${1.8}\times 10^{-10}$ GeV$^{-1}$. In comparison, gamma ray flux attenuation due to oscillation with a dark photon leads to a very weak constraint on the mixing parameter; $ε\lesssim$ 0.2 for dark photon mass between $10^{-7}$ and $10^{-6}$ eV. Direct scattering from dark photon dark matter limits $ε\lesssim$ 0.01 for masses between $6$ and $400$ eV.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Klein-Nishina effect and the cosmic ray electron spectrum

Radiative energy losses are very important in regulating the cosmic ray electron and/or positron (CRE) spectrum during their propagation in the Milky Way. Particularly, the Klein-Nishina (KN) effect of the inverse Compton scattering (ICS) results in less efficient energy losses of high-energy electrons, which is expected to leave imprints on the propagated electron spectrum. It has been proposed that the hardening of CRE spectra around 50 GeV observed by Fermi-LAT, AMS-02, and DAMPE could be due to the KN effect. We show in this work that the transition from the Thomson regime to the KN regime of the ICS is actually quite smooth compared with the approximate treatment adopted in some previous works. As a result, the observed spectral hardening of CREs cannot be explained by the KN effect. It means that an additional hardening of the primary electrons spectrum is needed. We also provide a parameterized form for the accurate calculation of the ICS energy-loss rate in a wide energy range.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Test of the superdiffusion model in the interstellar medium around the Geminga pulsar

The TeV $γ$-ray halo around the Geminga pulsar is an important indicator of cosmic-ray (CR) propagation in the local zone of the Galaxy as it reveals the spatial distribution of the electrons and positrons escaping from the pulsar. Considering the intricate magnetic field in the interstellar medium (ISM), it is proposed that superdiffusion model could be more realistic to describe the CR propagation than the commonly used normal diffusion model. In this work, we test the superdiffusion model in the ISM around the Geminga pulsar by fitting to the surface brightness profile of the Geminga halo measured by HAWC. Our results show that the chi-square statistic monotonously increases as $α$ decreases from 2 to 1, where $α$ is the characteristic index of superdiffusion describing the degree of fractality of the ISM and $α=2$ corresponds to the normal diffusion model. We find that model with $α<1.32$ (or $<1.4$, depending on the data used in fit) is disfavored at 95\% confidence level. Superdiffusion model with $α$ close to 2 can well explain the morphology of the Geminga halo, while it predicts much higher positron flux on the Earth than the normal diffusion model. This has important implication for the interpretation of the CR positron excess.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Solar modulation of cosmic proton and helium with AMS-02

We investigate the solar modulation effect with the long time cosmic ray proton and helium spectrum measured by AMS-02 on the time scale of a Bartels rotation (27 days) between May 2011 and May 2017. The time-span covers the negative heliospheric magnetic field polarity cycle, the polarity reversal period and the positive polarity cycle. The unprecedented accuracy of AMS-02 observation data provide a good opportunity to improve the understanding of the time dependent solar modulation effect. In this work, a two-dimensional solar modulation model is used to compute the propagation of cosmic rays in the heliosphere. Some important ingredients of the model which reflect the global heliospherical environment are taken from the observations. The propagation equation is numerically solved with the pubic Solarprop code. We find that the drift effect is suppressed during the high solar activity period but nearly recovered in the first half of 2017. The time-dependent rigidity dependence of the mean free path is critical to reproduce the observations between August 2012 and October 2015.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Secondary cosmic-ray nucleus spectra disfavor particle transport in the Galaxy without reacceleration

The precise observations of Galactic cosmic ray fluxes of the secondary family, such as Li, Be, B, are expected to have significant implications on our understanding of the cosmic ray origin and propagation. Here we employ the recent very precise measurements of those species by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station, together with their parent species (C and O), as well as the data collected by the Voyager-1 spacecraft outside the heliosphere and the Advanced Composition Explorer, to investigate the propagation of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. We consider the diffusion of cosmic rays plus reacceleration or convection effect during the propagation, and find that the reacceleration model can fit the data significantly better than the convection model. We further find that for the reacceleration model, the spectral hardenings of both the primary and secondary particles can be well described by the injection hardening without including additional propagation hardening. This is due to that the reacceleration effect results in a steeper secondary-to-primary ratio at low energies, and can thus naturally reproduce the fact that the secondary spectra harden more than the primary spectra found by AMS-02.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Nearby source interpretation of differences among light and medium composition spectra in cosmic rays

Recently the AMS-02 reported the precise measurements of the energy spectra of medium-mass compositions (Neon, Magnesium, Silicon) of primary cosmic rays, which reveal different properties from those of light compositions (Helium, Carbon, Oxygen). Here we propose a nearby source scenario, together with the background source contribution, to explain the newly measured spectra of cosmic ray Ne, Mg, Si, and particularly their differences from that of He, C, O. Their differences at high energies can be naturally accounted for by the element abundance of the nearby source. Specifically, the abundance ratio of the nearby source to the background of the Ne, Mg, Si elements is lower by a factor of $\sim1.7$ than that of the He, C, O elements. Such a difference could be due to the abundance difference of the stellar evolution of the progenitor star or the acceleration process/environment, of the nearby source. This scenario can simultaneously explain the high-energy spectral softening features of cosmic ray spectra revealed recently by CREAM/NUCLEON/DAMPE, as well as the energy-dependent behaviors of the large-scale anisotropies. It is predicted that the dipole anisotropy amplitudes below PeV energies of the Ne, Mg, Si group are smaller than that of the He, C, O group, which can be tested with future measurements.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Expected LHAASO sensitivity to decaying dark matter signatures from dwarf galaxies gamma-ray emission

As a next-generation complex extensive air shower array with a large field of view, the large high altitude air shower observatory (LHAASO) is very sensitive to the very high energy gamma-rays from $\sim$ 300 GeV to 1 PeV, and may thus serve as an important probe for the heavy dark matter (DM) particles. In this study, we make a forecast for the LHAASO sensitivities to the gamma-ray signatures resulting from DM decay in dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) within the LHAASO field of view. Both individual and combined limits for 19 dSphs incorporating the uncertainties of the DM density profile are explored. Owing to the large effective area and strong capability of the photon-proton discrimination, we find that LHASSSO is sensitive to the signatures from decaying DM particles above $\mathcal{O}(1)$ TeV. The LHAASO sensitivity to the DM decay lifetime reaches $\mathcal{O} (10^{26}) \sim \mathcal{O} (10^{28})$ s for several decay channels at the DM mass scale from 1 TeV to 100 TeV.

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