Prescriptions on antiproton cross section data for precise theoretical antiproton flux predictions

Understand

After the breakthrough from the satellite-borne PAMELA detector, the flux of cosmic-ray (CR) antiprotons has been provided with unprecedented accuracy by AMS-02 on the International Space Station.

• Its data spans an energy range from below 1 GeV up to 400 GeV and most of the data points contain errors below the amazing level of 5%.
• The bulk of the antiproton flux is expected to be produced by the scatterings of CR protons and helium off interstellar hydrogen and helium atoms at rest.
• The modeling of these interactions, which requires the relevant production cross sections, induces an uncertainty in the determination of the antiproton source term that can even exceed the uncertainties in the CR $\bar{p}$ data itself.