Are recently-detected excesses of cosmic electrons and positrons the first direct evidence for the existence of dark matter particles? That has been the hope of many physicists, while others have suggested a more mundane origin in a nearby pulsar. Now researchers in the US claim that the excesses can be linked to high-energy gamma rays emitted by the Geminga pulsar.

 

Researchers included The Ohio State University's Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics Matthew Kistler and Hasan Yuksel and Todor Stanev at the University of Delaware.

 

The image to the left is the extended region of high-energy gamma rays around the Geminga pulsar as seen by the Milagro experiment.

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