scholarly journals Prospects of testing an UHECR single source class model with the K-EUSO orbital telescope

2019 ◽  
Vol 210 ◽  
pp. 06011
Author(s):  
Oleg Kalashev ◽  
Maxim Pshirkov ◽  
Mikhail Zotov

KLYPVE-EUSO (K-EUSO) is a planned orbital detector of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), which is to be deployed on board the International Space Station. K-EUSO is expected to have a uniform exposure over the celestial sphere and register from 120 to 500 UHECRs at energies above 57 EeV in a 2-year mission. We employed the TransportCR and CRPropa 3 packages to estimate prospects of testing a minimal single source class model for extragalactic cosmic rays and neutrinos by Kachelrieß, Kalashev, Ostapchenko and Semikoz (2017) with K-EUSO in terms of the large-scale anisotropy. Nearby active galactic nuclei Centaurus A, M82, NGC 253, M87 and Fornax A were considered as possible sources of UHECRs. We demonstrate that an observation of more than 200 events will allow testing predictions of the model with a high confidence level providing the fraction of events arriving from any of the sources is ^10-15%, with a smaller contribution for larger samples. These numbers agree with theoretical expectations of a possible contribution of a single source in the UHECR flux. Thus, K-EUSO can provide good opportunities for verifying the minimal model basing on an analysis of the large-scale anisotropy of arrival directions of UHECRs.

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 1583-1586
Author(s):  
MARTIN LEMOINE

This paper discusses the correlation reported in 2008 by the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) of the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays with active galactic nuclei (AGN). It is argued that these correlating AGN do not have the power required to be the sources of ultra-high energy protons. This current PAO dataset is further shown to disfavor giant radio-galaxies (both Fanaroff–Riley type I and II) as sources of ultra-high energy protons. The current data thus likely point to the local large scale structure, in which the actual sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays camouflage. Finally, it is shown that the last gamma-ray burst in Centaurus A could explain, through rescattering on the Cen A lobes, the apparent cluster of events in this direction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-46
Author(s):  
Dmitri L. Khokhlov

AbstractThe studied conjecture is that ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are hypothetical Planck neutrinos arising in the decay of the protons falling onto the gravastar. The proton is assumed to decay at the Planck scale into positron and four Planck neutrinos. The supermassive black holes inside active galactic nuclei, while interpreted as gravastars, are considered as UHECR sources. The scattering of the Planck neutrinos by the proton at the Planck scale is considered. The Planck neutrinos contribution to the CR events may explain the CR spectrum from 5 × 1018 eV to 1020 eV. The muon number in the Planck neutrinos-initiated shower is estimated to be larger by a factor of 3/2 in comparison with the standard model that is consistent with the observational data.


2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (24) ◽  
pp. 1991-1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUKIO TOMOZAWA

The author reviews a model for the emission of high energy cosmic rays, gamma-rays and neutrinos from AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei) that he has proposed since 1985. Further discussion of the knee energy phenomenon of the cosmic ray energy spectrum requires the existence of a heavy particle with mass in the knee energy range. A possible method of detecting such a particle in the Pierre Auger Project is suggested. Also presented is a relation between the spectra of neutrinos and gamma-rays emitted from AGN. This relation can be tested by high energy neutrino detectors such as ICECUBE, the Mediterranean Sea Detector and possibly by the Pierre Auger Project.


Author(s):  
Federico Fraschetti

Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) hit the Earth's atmosphere with energies exceeding 10 18  eV. This is the same energy as carried by a tennis ball moving at 100 km h −1 , but concentrated on a subatomic particle. UHECRs are so rare (the flux of particles with E >10 20  eV is 0.5 km −2 per century) that only a few such particles have been detected over the past 50 years. Recently, the HiRes and Auger experiments have reported the discovery of a high-energy cut-off in the UHECR spectrum, and Auger has found an apparent clustering of the highest energy events towards nearby active galactic nuclei. Consensus is building that the highest energy particles are accelerated within the radio-bright lobes of these objects, but it remains unclear how this actually happens, and whether the cut-off is due to propagation effects or reflects an intrinsically physical limitation of the acceleration process. The low event statistics presently allows for many different plausible models; nevertheless observations are beginning to impose strong constraints on them. These observations have also motivated suggestions that new physics may be implicated. We present a review of the key theoretical and observational issues related to the processes of propagation and acceleration of UHECRs and proposed solutions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 61-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter L. Biermann ◽  
Julia K. Becker ◽  
Laurenţiu Caramete ◽  
Alex Curuţiu ◽  
Ralph Engel ◽  
...  

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