No Arabic abstract
(Abridged) Recent results from the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) indicate that the composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with energies above $10^{19}$ eV may be dominated by heavy nuclei. An important question is whether the distribution of arrival directions for such UHECR nuclei can exhibit observable anisotropy or positional correlations with their astrophysical source objects despite the expected strong deflections by intervening magnetic fields. For this purpose, we have simulated the propagation of UHECR nuclei including models for both the extragalactic magnetic field and the Galactic magnetic field. Assuming that only iron nuclei are injected steadily from sources with equal luminosity and spatially distributed according to the observed large scale structure in the local Universe, at the number of events published by the PAO so far, the arrival distribution of UHECRs would be consistent with no auto-correlation at 95% confidence if the mean number density of UHECR sources $n_s >~ 10^{-6}$ Mpc$^{-3}$, and consistent with no cross-correlation with sources within 95% errors for $n_s >~ 10^{-5}$ Mpc$^{-3}$. On the other hand, with 1000 events above $5.5 times 10^{19}$ eV in the whole sky, next generation experiments can reveal auto-correlation with more than 99% probability even for $n_s <~ 10^{-3}$ Mpc$^{-3}$, and cross-correlation with sources with more than 99% probability for $n_s <~ 10^{-4}$ Mpc$^{-3}$. In addition, we find that the contribution of Centaurus A is required to reproduce the currently observed UHECR excess in the Centaurus region. Secondary protons generated by photodisintegration of primary heavy nuclei during propagation play a crucial role in all cases, and the resulting anisotropy at small angular scales should provide a strong hint of the source location if the maximum energies of the heavy nuclei are sufficiently high.
The propagation trajectories of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are inevitably affected by Galactic magnetic field (GMF). Because of the inevitability, the importance of the studies of the propagation in GMF have increased to interpret the results of recent UHECR experiments. This article reviews the effects of GMF to the propagation and arrival directions of UHECRs and introduces recent studies to constrain UHECR sources.
We present an update on CRDB (https://lpsc.in2p3.fr/crdb), the cosmic-ray database for charged species. CRDB is based on MySQL, queried and sorted by jquery and table-sorter libraries, and displayed via PHP web pages through the AJAX protocol. We review the modifications made on the structure and outputs of the database since the first release (Maurin et al., 2014). For this update, the most important feature is the inclusion of ultra-heavy nuclei ($Z>30$), ultra-high energy nuclei (from $10^{15}$ to $10^{20}$ eV), and limits on antinuclei fluxes ($Zleq -1$ for $A>1$); more than 100 experiments, 350 publications, and 40000 data points are now available in CRDB. We also revisited and simplified how users can retrieve data and submit new ones. For questions and requests, please contact
[email protected].
More than 100 years after the discovery of cosmic rays and various experimental efforts, the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (E > 100 PeV) remains unclear. The understanding of production and propagation effects of these highest energetic particles in the universe is one of the most intense research fields of high-energy astrophysics. With the advent of advanced simulation engines developed during the last couple of years, and the increase of experimental data, we are now in a unique position to model source and propagation parameters in an unprecedented precision and compare it to measured data from large scale observatories. In this paper we revisit the most important propagation effects of cosmic rays through photon backgrounds and magnetic fields and introduce recent developments of propagation codes. Finally, by comparing the results to experimental data, possible implications on astrophysical parameters are given.
We present an updated estimate of the cosmic radio background (CRB) and the corresponding attenuation lengths for ultra-high energy photons. This new estimate provides associated uncertainties as a function of frequency derived from observational constraints on key physical parameters. We also present the expected variation in the spectrum of the CRB as a function of these parameters, as well as accounting for the expected variation in spectral index among the population of radio galaxies. The new estimate presented in this work shows better agreement with observational constraints from radio source-count measurements than previous calculations. In the energy regime where we expect cosmogenic photons dominantly attenuated by the CRB, our calculation of the attenuation length differs from previous estimates by a factor of up to 3, depending on energy and the specific model for comparison. These results imply a decrease in the expected number of cosmogenic photons with energies $sim 10^{19}-10^{20}$ eV.
We present new measurements of the energy spectra of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei from the second flight of the balloon-borne experiment Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM). The instrument included different particle detectors to provide redundant charge identification and measure the energy of CRs up to several hundred TeV. The measured individual energy spectra of C, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe are presented up to $sim 10^{14}$ eV. The spectral shape looks nearly the same for these primary elements and it can be fitted to an $E^{-2.66 pm 0.04}$ power law in energy. Moreover, a new measurement of the absolute intensity of nitrogen in the 100-800 GeV/$n$ energy range with smaller errors than previous observations, clearly indicates a hardening of the spectrum at high energy. The relative abundance of N/O at the top of the atmosphere is measured to be $0.080 pm 0.025 $(stat.)$ pm 0.025 $(sys.) at $sim $800 GeV/$n$, in good agreement with a recent result from the first CREAM flight.