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Register a new userInteractions of UHE cosmic ray nuclei with radiation during acceleration: consequences on the spectrum and composition
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In this paper, we study the diffusive shock acceleration of cosmic-ray protons and nuclei, taking into account all the relevant interaction processes with photon backgrounds. We investigate how the competition between protons and nuclei is modified by the acceleration parameters such as the acceleration rate, its rigidity dependence, the photon density and the confinement capability of the sources. We find that in the case of interaction-limited acceleration processes protons are likely to be accelerated to higher energies than nuclei, whereas for confinement-limited acceleration nuclei are accelerated to higher energies than protons. Finally, we discuss our results in the context of possible astrophysical accelerators, and in the light of recent cosmic-ray data.
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We consider the stochastic propagation of high-energy protons and nuclei in the cosmological microwave and infrared backgrounds, using revised photonuclear cross-sections and following primary and secondary nuclei in the full 2D nuclear chart. We confirm earlier results showing that the high-energy data can be fit with a pure proton extragalactic cosmic ray (EGCR) component if the source spectrum is propto E^{-2.6}. In this case the ankle in the CR spectrum may be interpreted as a pair-production dip associated with the propagation. We show that when heavier nuclei are included in the source with a composition similar to that of Galactic cosmic-rays (GCRs), the pair-production dip is not present unless the proton fraction is higher than 85%. In the mixed composition case, the ankle recovers the past interpretation as the transition from GCRs to EGCRs and the highest energy data can be explained by a harder source spectrum propto E^{-2.2} - E^{-2.3}, reminiscent of relativistic shock acceleration predictions, and in good agreement with the GCR data at low-energy and holistic scenarios.
I discuss the shape of the high energy end of the spectrum of particles arising from diffusive shock acceleration in the presence of (i) additional diffusive escape from the accelerator, (ii) continuous energy losses, (iii) energy changes arising from interactions. The form of the spectrum near cut-off is sensitive to these processes as well as to the momentum-dependence of the diffusion coefficients and the compression ratio, and so the spectrum of any radiation emitted by the accelerated particles may reflect the physical conditions of the acceleration region. Results presented in this paper have applications in interpreting the spectral energy distributions of many types of astrophysical object including supernova remnants (SNR), active galactic nuclei (AGN) and acceleration sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHE CR). Except for extremely nearby sources, spectral features imprinted on the spectrum of UHE CR during the acceleration process will be largely eroded during propagation, but the spectrum of UHE neutrinos produced in interactions of UHE CR with radiation, both during cosmic ray acceleration and subsequent propagation through the cosmic microwave background radiation, contains sufficient information to determine the cut-off momentum of the UHE CR just after acceleration for reasonable assumptions. Observation of these UHE neutrinos by the Pierre Auger Observatory may help in identifying the sources of the highest energy cosmic rays.
The NUCLEON experiment is designed to measure chemical composition of cosmic rays with charges from Z=1 to 30 in an energy region from 5*10^11 to 10^15 eV. In this article the data analysis algorithm and spectra of Ni and Fe nuclei, measured in the NUCLEON experiment, are presented.
The emission mechanism for hard $gamma$-ray spectra from supernova remnants (SNRs) is still a matter of debate. Recent multi-wavelength observations of TeV source HESS J1912+101 show that it is associated with an SNR with an age of $sim 100$ kyrs, making it unlikely produce the TeV $gamma$-ray emission via leptonic processes. We analyzed Fermi observations of it and found an extended source with a hard spectrum. HESS J1912+101 may represent a peculiar stage of SNR evolution that dominates the acceleration of TeV cosmic rays. By fitting the multi-wavelength spectra of 13 SNRs with hard GeV $gamma$-ray spectra with simple emission models with a density ratio of GeV electrons to protons of $sim 10^{-2}$, we obtain reasonable mean densities and magnetic fields with a total energy of $sim 10^{50}$ ergs for relativistic ions in each SNR. Among these sources, only two of them, namely SN 1006 and RCW 86, favor a leptonic origin for the $gamma$-ray emission. The magnetic field energy is found to be comparable to that of the accelerated relativistic ions and their ratio has a tendency of increase with the age of SNRs. These results suggest that TeV cosmic rays mainly originate from SNRs with hard $gamma$-ray spectra.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have long been held as one of the most promising sources of ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrinos. The internal shock model of GRB emission posits the joint production of UHE cosmic ray (UHECRs, above 10^8 GeV), photons, and neutrinos, through photohadronic interactions between source photons and magnetically-confined energetic protons, that occur when relativistically-expanding matter shells loaded with baryons collide with one another. While neutrino observations by IceCube have now ruled out the simplest version of the internal shock model, we show that a revised calculation of the emission, together with the consideration of the full photohadronic cross section and other particle physics effects, results in a prediction of the prompt GRB neutrino flux that still lies one order of magnitude below the current upper bounds, as recently exemplified by the results from ANTARES. In addition, we show that by allowing protons to directly escape their magnetic confinement without interacting at the source, we are able to partially decouple the cosmic ray and prompt neutrino emission, which grants the freedom to fit the UHECR observations while respecting the neutrino upper bounds. Finally, we briefly present advances towards pinning down the precise relation between UHECRs and UHE neutrinos, including the baryonic loading required to fit UHECR observations, and we will assess the role that very large volume neutrino telescopes play in this.
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