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We present the first measurement of cosmic-ray fluxes of and isotopes in the rigidity range from 1.9 to 25 GV. The measurements are based on and nuclei collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station from May 2011 to October 2023. We observe that over the entire rigidity range the and fluxes exhibit nearly identical time variations and, above , the time variations of , , He, Be, B, C, N, and O fluxes are identical. Above , we find an identical rigidity dependence of the and fluxes. This shows that they are both produced by collisions of heavier cosmic-ray nuclei with the interstellar medium and, in particular, excludes the existence of a sizable primary component in the flux. Published by the American Physical Society2025more » « lessFree, publicly-accessible full text available May 1, 2026
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We report the properties of precision time structures of cosmic nuclei He, Li, Be, B, C, N, and O fluxes over an 11-year solar cycle from May 2011 to November 2022 in the rigidity range from 1.92 to 60.3 GV. The nuclei fluxes show similar but not identical time variations with amplitudes decreasing with increasing rigidity. In particular, below 3.64 GV the Li, Be, and B fluxes, and below 2.15 GV the C, N, and O fluxes, are significantly less affected by solar modulation than the He flux. We observe that these differences in solar modulation are linearly correlated with the differences in the spectral indices of the cosmic nuclei fluxes. This shows, in a model-independent way, that solar modulation of galactic cosmic nuclei depends on their spectral shape. In addition, solar modulation differences due to nuclei velocity dependence on the mass-to-charge ratio ( ) are not observed. Published by the American Physical Society2025more » « lessFree, publicly-accessible full text available February 1, 2026
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ABSTRACT A wide variety of Galactic sources show transient emission at soft and hard X-ray energies: low- and high-mass X-ray binaries containing compact objects, isolated neutron stars exhibiting extreme variability as magnetars as well as pulsar-wind nebulae. Although most of them can show emission up to MeV and/or GeV energies, many have not yet been detected in the TeV domain by Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of detecting new Galactic transients with the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) and the prospects for studying them with Target of Opportunity observations. We show that CTAO will likely detect new sources in the TeV regime, such as the massive microquasars in the Cygnus region, low-mass X-ray binaries with low-viewing angle, flaring emission from the Crab pulsar-wind nebula or other novae explosions, among others. Since some of these sources could also exhibit emission at larger time-scales, we additionally test their detectability at longer exposures. We finally discuss the multiwavelength synergies with other instruments and large astronomical facilities.more » « lessFree, publicly-accessible full text available May 15, 2026
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Precision measurements by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station of the deuteron ( ) flux are presented. The measurements are based on nuclei in the rigidity range from 1.9 to 21 GV collected from May 2011 to April 2021. We observe that over the entire rigidity range the flux exhibits nearly identical time variations with the , , and fluxes. Above 4.5 GV, the flux ratio is time independent and its rigidity dependence is well described by a single power law with . This is in contrast with the flux ratio for which we find . Above we find a nearly identical rigidity dependence of the and fluxes with a flux ratio of . These unexpected observations indicate that cosmic deuterons have a sizable primarylike component. With a method independent of cosmic ray propagation, we obtain the primary component of the flux equal to of the flux and the secondary component of the flux equal to of the flux. Published by the American Physical Society2024more » « less
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Abstract Galaxy clusters are expected to be both dark matter (DM) reservoirs and storage rooms for the cosmic-ray protons (CRp) that accumulate along the cluster's formation history. Accordingly, they are excellent targets to search for signals of DM annihilation and decay atγ-ray energies and are predicted to be sources of large-scaleγ-ray emission due to hadronic interactions in the intracluster medium (ICM).In this paper, we estimate the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to detect diffuseγ-ray emission from the Perseus galaxy cluster.We first perform a detailed spatial and spectral modelling of the expected signal for both the DM and the CRp components. For each case, we compute the expected CTA sensitivity accounting for the CTA instrument response functions. The CTA observing strategy of the Perseus cluster is also discussed.In the absence of a diffuse signal (non-detection), CTA should constrain the CRp to thermal energy ratioX500within the characteristic radiusR500down to aboutX500< 3 × 10-3, for a spatial CRp distribution that follows the thermal gas and a CRp spectral index αCRp= 2.3. Under the optimistic assumption of a pure hadronic origin of the Perseus radio mini-halo and depending on the assumed magnetic field profile, CTA should measure αCRpdown to about ΔαCRp≃ 0.1 and the CRp spatial distribution with 10% precision, respectively. Regarding DM, CTA should improve the current ground-basedγ-ray DM limits from clusters observations on the velocity-averaged annihilation cross-section by a factor of up to ∼ 5, depending on the modelling of DM halo substructure. In the case of decay of DM particles, CTA will explore a new region of the parameter space, reaching models withτχ> 1027s for DM masses above 1 TeV.These constraints will provide unprecedented sensitivity to the physics of both CRp acceleration and transport at cluster scale and to TeV DM particle models, especially in the decay scenario.more » « less
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Marshall, Heather K.; Spyromilio, Jason; Usuda, Tomonori (Ed.)The novel 9.7m Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT), utilizing aspheric dual-mirror optical system, has been constructed as a prototype medium size x-ray telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory. The prototype SCT (pSCT) is designed to achieve simultaneously the wide (≥ 8°) field of view and the superior imaging resolution (0.067 per pixel) to significantly improve scientific capabilities of the observatory in conducting the sky surveys, the follow-up observations of multi-messenger transients with poorly known initial localization and the morphology studies of x-ray sources with angular extent. In this submission, we describe the hardware and software implementations of the telescope optical system as well as the methods specifically developed to align its complex optical system, in which both primary and secondary mirrors are segmented. The pSCT has detected Crab Nebula in June 2020 during ongoing commissioning, which was delayed due to worldwide pandemic and is not yet completed. Verification of pSCT performance is continuing and further improvement of optical alignment is anticipated.more » « less
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