Inferring the local interstellar spectrum of cosmic ray protons from PAMELA data

Abstract

We take advantage of the cosmic-ray (CR) proton data collected by the PAMELA detector in several campaigns covering the period 2006-2009 to derive the local interstellar CR proton spectrum (LIS), outside the solar system. We describe the propagation of CR protons in the solar system by means of a detailed model of the charge-sign dependent drifts occurring while CRs diffuse in the irregular solar magnetic field. We fit PAMELA data for each year of data taking and find that they are well described by a unique time-independent LIS. We then discuss the consequences of this LIS on galactic propagation models. We find that diffusive reacceleration is strongly constrained, thus confirming previous results derived from different channels.