16 research outputs found
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
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
Global anisotropy of arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays: capabilities of space-based detectors
Planned space-based ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray detectors (TUS, JEM-EUSO and
S-EUSO) are best suited for searches of global anisotropies in the distribution
of arrival directions of cosmic-ray particles because they will be able to
observe the full sky with a single instrument. We calculate quantitatively the
strength of anisotropies associated with two models of the origin of the
highest-energy particles: the extragalactic model (sources follow the
distribution of galaxies in the Universe) and the superheavy dark-matter model
(sources follow the distribution of dark matter in the Galactic halo). Based on
the expected exposure of the experiments, we estimate the optimal strategy for
efficient search of these effects.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, iopart style. v.2: discussion of the effect of
the cosmic magnetic fields added; other minor changes. Simulated UHECR
skymaps available at http://livni.inr.ac.ru/UHECRskymaps
GZK photon constraints on Planck scale Lorentz violation in QED
We show how the argument exploited by Galaverni & Sigl in Phys. Rev. Lett.,
100, 021102 (2008) (see also arXiv:0708.1737) to constrain Lorentz invariance
violation (LV) using Ultra-High-Energy photon non observation by the AUGER
experiment, can be extended to QED with Planck-suppressed LV (at order
and ). While the original constraints given by Galaverni & Sigl
happen to be weakened, we show that, when used together with other EFT
reactions and the expected detection of photons at eV by AUGER,
this method has the potentiality not only to basically rule out order
corrections but also to strongly constrain, for the first time, the CPT-even
LV QED.Comment: v2: Improved Introduction. Accepted by JCA
Anisotropy studies around the galactic centre at EeV energies with the Auger Observatory
Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory are analyzed to search for
anisotropies near the direction of the Galactic Centre at EeV energies. The
exposure of the surface array in this part of the sky is already significantly
larger than that of the fore-runner experiments. Our results do not support
previous findings of localized excesses in the AGASA and SUGAR data. We set an
upper bound on a point-like flux of cosmic rays arriving from the Galactic
Centre which excludes several scenarios predicting sources of EeV neutrons from
Sagittarius . Also the events detected simultaneously by the surface and
fluorescence detectors (the `hybrid' data set), which have better pointing
accuracy but are less numerous than those of the surface array alone, do not
show any significant localized excess from this direction.Comment: Matches published versio
An upper limit to the photon fraction in cosmic rays above 10^19 eV from the Pierre Auger Observatory
An upper limit of 16% (at 95% c.l.) is derived for the photon fraction in cosmic rays with energies above 10^19 eV, based on observations of the depth of shower maximum performed with the hybrid detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. This is the first such limit on photons obtained by observing the fluorescence light profile of air showers. This upper limit confirms and improves on previous results from the Haverah Park and AGASA surface arrays. Additional data recorded with the Auger surface detectors for a subset of the event sample, support the conclusion that a photon origin of the observed events is not favoured
GZK Photons as Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays
We calculate the flux of "GZK-photons", namely the flux of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) consisting of photons produced by extragalactic protons through the resonant photoproduction of pions, the so called Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) effect. We show that if the UHECR are mostly protons, depending on the UHECR spectrum, the slope of the proton flux at the source, distribution of sources and intervening backgrounds, between and of the UHECR above eV and between and 0.6 of the UHECR above eV are photons (the range being much higher for the AGASA than for the HiRes spectrum). Detection of these photons would open the way for UHECR gamma-ray astronomy. Detection of a larger photon flux would imply the emission of photons at the source or new physics. In fact, we find that at energiesclose to eV the maximum expected GZK photon fraction is comparable to (for the AGASA spectrum) or much smaller than (for the HiRes spectrum) the minimum photon ratio predicted by Top-Down models which fit the AGASA or the HiRes data, thus, the photon fraction at eV is a crucial test for Top-Down models