Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Anti-matter in the primary cosmic radiation

Abstract

Anti-matter in the cosmic radiation incident on the Earth can be of two types: antiparticles from distant antigalaxies and secondary particles generated by collisions of cosmic rays with nuclei of the interstellar medium (ISM) either in our Galaxy or in other galaxies. Insofar as the 2.7 K relict radiation inhibits the former for positrons (with energy above some tens of MeV) and the expected ratio of extragalactic particles to galactic particles is very small for protons (and thus antiprotons) it is conventional to assume that collisions in the ISM are the source of the e+ and p̄ detected. We consider here the manner in which cosmic rays are propagated in the Galaxy by studying the fluxes of these antiparticles.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Giler, M., Wdowczyk, J. & Wolfendale, A. W. J. Phys. A10, 843 (1977).

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Golden, R. L. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 1196 (1979).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bogomolov, E. A. et al. Proc. int. Cosmic Ray Conf., Kyoto 1, 330 (1979).

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Gaisser, T. K. & Maurer, R. H. Phys. Rev. Lett. 30, 1264 (1973).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Badhwar, G. D. et al. Astrophys. Space. Sci. 37, 283 (1975).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Allaby, J. V. et al. Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on H. E. Collisions, Oxford 2, 85 (1972).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Antipov Yu, M. et al. Phys. Lett. 34 B, 2 164 (1971).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Johnson, J. R. et al. Phys. Rev. D 17, 5 1292 (1978).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Capiluppi, P. et al. Nucl Phys. 70, 1 (1974).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Rossi, A. M. et al. Nucl Phys. B 84, 269 (1975).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Juliusson, E. Proc. int. Cosmic Ray Conf., Munich 8, 2689 (1975).

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Shapiro, M. M. & Silberberg, R. Proc. R. Soc. 277, 319 (1974).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Caldwell, J. H. Astrophys. J. 218, 269 (1977).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Garcia-Munoz, M. et al. Proc. int. Cosmic Ray Conf., Kyoto 1, 310 (1978).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Garcia-Munoz, M., Mason, G. M. & Simpson, J. A. Astrophys. J. Lett. 201, L141 (1975).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Giler, M., Wdowczyk, J. & Wolfendale, A. W. J. Phys. A 11, 199 (1978).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Szabelski, J., Wdowczyk, J. & Wolfendale, A. Anti-matter in the primary cosmic radiation. Nature 285, 386–388 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/285386a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/285386a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing