The Theoretical Power Law Exponent for Electron and Positron Cosmic Rays: A Comment on the Recent Letter of the AMS Collaboration

Abstract

In a recent letter, the AMS collaboration reported the detailed and extensive data concerning the distribution in energy of electron and positron cosmic rays. A central result of the experimental work resides in the energy regime $30\ {\rm GeV}< E < 1\ {\rm TeV}$ wherein the power law exponent of the energy distribution is measured to be $α({\rm experiment})=3.17$. In virtue of the Fermi statistics obeyed by electrons and positrons, a theoretical value was predicted as $α({\rm theory})=3.151374$ in very good agreement with experimental data. The consequences of this agreement between theory and experiment concerning the sources of cosmic ray electrons and positrons are briefly explored.