Reanalysis of the systematic uncertainties in the cosmic-ray antiproton flux

Recent studies on cosmic rays (CRs) have reported the possibility of an excess in the antiproton flux around 10-20 GeV. However, the associated systematic uncertainties have impeded the interpretation of these findings. In this study, we conduct a global Bayesian analysis to constrain the propagation parameters and evaluate the CR antiproton spectrum, while comprehensively accounting for uncertainties associated with interstellar CR propagation, production cross sections for antiprotons and other secondaries, and the charge- and energy-dependent effects of solar modulation. We establish that the most recent Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) p over bar spectrum is in agreement with a pure secondary origin. Based on this, we establish upper limits on dark matter (DM) annihilation. We also determine that the AMS-02 data favor the empirical hadronic interaction models over phenomenological ones. Finally, we find that the latest AMS-02 antiproton data from 2011 to 2018 disfavors the antiproton excess at Oo10 thorn GeV and the corresponding DM interpretation that can simultaneously account for the Galactic Center excess in the gamma-ray observation.