Cosmic Rays from Pulsars and Magnetars

Abstract

We compare the expected abundance of cosmic-ray electrons and positrons from pulsars and magnetars. We assume that the distribution of infant pulsars and magnetars follows that of high-mass stars in the Milky Way and that the production rate of cosmic rays is proportional to the spin-down and magnetic-decay power of pulsars and magnetars, respectively. In combination with primary and secondary cosmic-ray leptons from other sources (especially supernova remnants), we find that both magnetars and pulsars can easily account for the observed cosmic-ray spectrum, in particular the dip seen by HESS at several TeV and the increase in positron fraction found by PAMELA.