Implications of gamma-ray and neutrino observations on source models of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

The origin and nature of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are still unknown. However, great progress has been achieved in past years due to the observations performed by the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. Above $10^{18}$ eV the observed energy spectrum presents two features: a hardening of the slope at about $10^{18.7}$ eV, which is known as the ankle and a suppression at approximately $10^{19.6}$ eV. The composition inferred from the experimental data, interpreted by using the current high energy hadronic interaction models, seems to be light below the ankle, showing a trend to heavier nuclei for increasing values of the primary energy. Current high energy hadronic interaction models, updated by using Large Hadron Collider data, are still subject to large systematic uncertainties, which makes difficult the interpretation of the experimental data in terms of composition. On the other hand, it is very well known that gamma rays and neutrinos are produced by UHECRs during propagation from their sources, as a consequence of their interactions with the radiation field present in the universe. The flux at Earth of these secondary particles depends on the source models of UHECRs including the chemical composition at injection. Therefore, both gamma-ray and neutrino observations can be used to constrain source models of UHECRs, including the composition in a way which is independent of the high energy hadronic interaction models. In this article I will review recent results obtained by using the latest gamma-ray and neutrino observations.Comment: Talk presented at International Conference on Black Holes as Cosmic Batteries: UHECRs and Multimessenger Astronomy (BHCB) 2018, Foz do Igua\c{c}u, Brasil. PoS(BHCB2018)00

Implications of gamma-ray observations on proton models of UHECR

The origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) is still unknown. However, great progress has been achieved in past years due to the good quality and large statistics in experimental data collected by the current observatories. The data of the Pierre Auger Observatory show that the composition of the UHECRs becomes progressively lighter starting from $10^{17}$ eV up to $\sim 10^{18.3}$ eV and then, beyond that energy, it becomes increasingly heavier. These analyses are subject to important systematic uncertainties due to the use of hadronic interaction models that extrapolate lower energy accelerator data to the highest energies. Although proton models of UHECRs are disfavored by these results, they cannot be completely ruled out. It is well known that the energy spectra of gamma rays and neutrinos, produced during propagation of these very energetic particles through the intergalactic medium, are a useful tool to constrain the spectrum models. In particular, it has recently been shown that the neutrino upper limits obtained by IceCube challenge the proton models at 95% CL. In this work we study the constraints imposed by the extragalactic gamma-ray background, measured by Fermi-LAT, on proton models of UHECRs. In particular, we make use of the extragalactic gamma-ray background flux, integrated from 50 GeV to 2 TeV, that originates in point sources, which has recently been obtained by the Fermi-LAT collaboration, in combination with the neutrino upper limits, to constrain the emission of UHECRs at high redshits ($z>1$), in the context of the proton models

Gamma rays and neutrinos from a cosmic ray source in the Galactic Center region

The center of the our Galaxy is a region where very energetic phenomena take place. In particular powerful cosmic ray sources can be located in that region. The cosmic rays accelerated in these sources may interact with ambient protons and/or low energy photons producing gamma rays and neutrinos. The observation of these two types of secondary particles can be very useful for the identification of the cosmic ray sources and for the understanding of the physical processes occurring during acceleration. Motivated by the excess in the neutrino spectrum recently reported by the IceCube Collaboration, we study in detail the shape of the gamma ray and neutrino spectra originated from the interaction of cosmic ray protons with ambient protons for sources located in the Galactic Center region. We consider different models for proton acceleration and study the impact on the gamma ray and neutrino spectra. We also discuss the possibility to constrain and even identify a particular neutrino source by using the information given by the gamma ray spectrum taking advantage of the modification of the spectral shape, caused by the interaction of the gamma rays with the photons of the radiation field present in the interstellar medium, which strongly depends on the source distance.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review

A new composition-sensitive parameter for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

A new family of parameters intended for composition studies in cosmic ray surface array detectors is proposed. The application of this technique to different array layout designs has been analyzed. The parameters make exclusive use of surface data combining the information from the total signal at each triggered detector and the array geometry. They are sensitive to the combined effects of the different muon and electromagnetic components on the lateral distribution function of proton and iron initiated showers at any given primary energy. Analytical and numerical studies have been performed in order to assess the reliability, stability and optimization of these parameters. Experimental uncertainties, the underestimation of the muon component in the shower simulation codes, intrinsic fluctuations and reconstruction errors are considered and discussed in a quantitative way. The potential discrimination power of these parameters, under realistic experimental conditions, is compared on a simplified, albeit quantitative way, with that expected from other surface and fluorescence estimators.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures. Submitted to a refereed journa

Effect of multiple reusing of simulated air showers in detector simulations

The study of high energy cosmic rays requires detailed Monte Carlo simulations of both, extensive air showers and the detectors involved in their detection. In particular, the energy calibration of several experiments is obtained from simulations. Also, in composition studies simulations play a fundamental role because the primary mass is determined by comparing experimental with simulated data. At the highest energies the detailed simulation of air showers is very costly in processing time and disk space due to the large number of secondary particles generated in interactions with the atmosphere. Therefore, in order to increase the statistics, it is quite common to recycle single showers many times to simulate the detector response. As a result, the events of the Monte Carlo samples generated in this way are not fully independent. In this work we study the artificial effects introduced by the multiple use of single air showers for the detector simulations. In particular, we study in detail the effects introduced by the repetitions in the kernel density estimators which are frequently used in composition studies.Comment: 15 pages and 4 figure