8 research outputs found
Composition of UHECR and the Pierre Auger Observatory Spectrum
We fit the recently published Pierre Auger ultra-high energy cosmic ray
spectrum assuming that either nucleons or nuclei are emitted at the sources. We
consider the simplified cases of pure proton, or pure oxygen, or pure iron
injection. We perform an exhaustive scan in the source evolution factor, the
spectral index, the maximum energy of the source spectrum Z E_{max}, and the
minimum distance to the sources. We show that the Pierre Auger spectrum agrees
with any of the source compositions we assumed. For iron, in particular, there
are two distinct solutions with high and low E_{max} (e.g. 6.4 10^{20} eV and 2
10^{19} eV) respectively which could be distinguished by either a large
fraction or the near absence of proton primaries at the highest energies. We
raise the possibility that an iron dominated injected flux may be in line with
the latest composition measurement from the Pierre Auger Observatory where a
hint of heavy element dominance is seen.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures (33 panels)- Uses iopart.cls and iopart12.clo- In
version 2: addition of a few sentences and two reference
GZK Photons Above 10 EeV
We calculate the flux of "GZK-photons", namely the flux of photons produced
by extragalactic nucleons through the resonant photoproduction of pions, the so
called GZK effect. This flux depends on the UHECR spectrum on Earth, of the
spectrum of nucleons emitted at the sources, which we characterize by its slope
and maximum energy, on the distribution of sources and on the intervening
cosmological backgrounds, in particular the magnetic field and radio
backgrounds. For the first time we calculate the GZK photons produced by
nuclei. We calculate the possible range of the GZK photon fraction of the total
UHECR flux for the AGASA and the HiRes spectra. We find that for nucleons
produced at the sources it could be as large as a few % and as low as 10^{-4}
above 10 EeV. For nuclei produced at the sources the maximum photon fraction is
a factor of 2 to 3 times smaller above 10 EeV but the minimum could be much
smaller than for nucleons. We also comment on cosmogenic neutrino fluxes.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures (21 panels), iopart.cls and iopart12.clo needed
to typese
Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray production in the polar cap regions of black hole magnetospheres
We develop a model of ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) production via
acceleration in a rotation-induced electric field in vacuum gaps in the
magnetospheres of supermassive black holes (BH). We show that if the poloidal
magnetic field near the BH horizon is misaligned with the BH rotation axis,
charged particles, which initially spiral into the BH hole along the equatorial
plane, penetrate into the regions above the BH "polar caps" and are ejected
with high energies to infinity. We show that in such a model acceleration of
protons near a BH of typical mass 3e8 solar masses is possible only if the
magnetic field is almost aligned with the BH rotation axis. We find that the
power of anisotropic electromagnetic emission from an UHECR source near a
supermassive BH should be at least 10-100 times larger then UHECR power of the
source. This implies that if the number of UHECR sources within the 100 Mpc
sphere is ~100, the power of electromagnetic emission which accompanies proton
acceleration in each source, erg/s, is comparable to the typical
luminosities of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the local Universe. We also
explore the acceleration of heavy nuclei, for which the constraints on the
electromagnetic luminosity and on the alignment of magnetic field in the gap
are relaxed
High energy radiation from Centaurus A
We calculate for the nearest active galactic nucleus (AGN), Centaurus A, the
flux of high energy cosmic rays and of accompanying secondary photons and
neutrinos expected from hadronic interactions in the source. We use as two
basic models for the generation of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR) shock
acceleration in the radio jet and acceleration in the regular electromagnetic
field close to the core of the AGN. While scattering on photons dominates in
scenarios with acceleration close to the core, scattering on gas becomes more
important if acceleration takes place along the jet. Normalizing the UHECR flux
from Centaurus A to the observations of the Auger experiment, the neutrino flux
may be marginally observable in a 1 km neutrino telescope, if a steep UHECR
flux \d N/\d E\propto E^{-\alpha} with extends down to
eV. The associated photon flux is close to or exceeds the observational data of
atmospheric Cherenkov and -ray telescopes for \alpha\gsim 2. In
particular, we find that already present data favour either a softer UHECR
injection spectrum than for Centaurus A or a lower UHECR flux than
expected from the normalization to the Auger observations.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; v2: revised version to appear in a special issue
of New Journal for Physic
Astrophysical Origins of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays
In the first part of this review we discuss the basic observational features
at the end of the cosmic ray energy spectrum. We also present there the main
characteristics of each of the experiments involved in the detection of these
particles. We then briefly discuss the status of the chemical composition and
the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays. After that, we examine
the energy losses during propagation, introducing the Greisen-Zaptsepin-Kuzmin
(GZK) cutoff, and discuss the level of confidence with which each experiment
have detected particles beyond the GZK energy limit. In the second part of the
review, we discuss astrophysical environments able to accelerate particles up
to such high energies, including active galactic nuclei, large scale galactic
wind termination shocks, relativistic jets and hot-spots of Fanaroff-Riley
radiogalaxies, pulsars, magnetars, quasar remnants, starbursts, colliding
galaxies, and gamma ray burst fireballs. In the third part of the review we
provide a brief summary of scenarios which try to explain the super-GZK events
with the help of new physics beyond the standard model. In the last section, we
give an overview on neutrino telescopes and existing limits on the energy
spectrum and discuss some of the prospects for a new (multi-particle)
astronomy. Finally, we outline how extraterrestrial neutrino fluxes can be used
to probe new physics beyond the electroweak scale.Comment: Higher resolution version of Fig. 7 is available at
http://www.angelfire.com/id/dtorres/down3.html. Solicited review article
prepared for Reports on Progress in Physics, final versio
SEARCHES FOR HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRINO EMISSION IN THE GALAXY WITH THE COMBINED ICECUBE-AMANDA DETECTOR
We report on searches for neutrino sources at energies above 200 GeV in the Northern sky of the Galactic plane, using the data collected by the South Pole neutrino telescope, IceCube, and AMANDA. The Galactic region considered in this work includes the local arm toward the Cygnus region and our closest approach to the Perseus Arm. The searches are based on the data collected between 2007 and 2009. During this time AMANDA was an integrated part of IceCube, which was still under construction and operated with 22 strings (2007-2008) and 40 strings (2008-2009) of optical modules deployed in the ice. By combining the advantages of the larger IceCube detector with the lower energy threshold of the more compact AMANDA detector, we obtain an improved sensitivity at energies below ~10 TeV with respect to previous searches. The analyses presented here are a scan for point sources within the Galactic plane, a search optimized for multiple and extended sources in the Cygnus region, which might be below the sensitivity of the point source scan, and studies of seven pre-selected neutrino source candidates. For one of them, Cygnus X-3, a time-dependent search for neutrino emission in coincidence with observed radio and X-ray flares has been performed. No evidence of a signal is found, and upper limits are reported for each of the searches. We investigate neutrino spectra proportional to E –2 and E –3 in order to cover the entire range of possible neutrino spectra. The steeply falling E –3 neutrino spectrum can also be used to approximate neutrino energy spectra with energy cutoffs below 50 TeV since these result in a similar energy distribution of events in the detector. For the region of the Galactic plane visible in the Northern sky, the 90% confidence level muon neutrino flux upper limits are in the range E 3 dN/dE ~ 5.4-19.5 × 10–11 TeV2 cm–2 s–1 for point-like neutrino sources in the energy region [180.0 GeV-20.5 TeV]. These represent the most stringent upper limits for soft-spectra neutrino sources within the Galaxy reported to date