Measurement of the cosmic electron plus positron spectrum with the MAGIC telescopes

摘要

Cosmic electrons with energies in the TeV range lose their energy rapidly through synchrotron radiation andinverse Compton processes, resulting in a relatively short lifetime ( 10 5 years). They are only visible from compara-tivelynearby sources (<1 kpc). Unexpected features in their spectrum at a few hundreds GeV, as measured by severalexperiments (ATIC, Fermi and H.E.S.S. among others), might be caused by local sources such as pulsars or by dark mat-terannihilation/decay. In order to investigate these possibilities, new measurements in the TeV energy region are needed.Since the completion of the stereo system, the MAGIC Cherenkov experiment is sensitive enough to measure the cosmicelectron flux between a few hundred GeV and few TeV. The electron signal has to be extracted from the overwhelmingbackground of hadronic cosmic rays estimated through Monte Carlo simulations. Here we present the first results of thecosmic electron spectrum measured with the MAGIC telescopes.