2001/07/31 by Luis A. Anchordoqui, Luis Anchordoqui, Haim Goldberg +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #astro-ph #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.64.123004
published as Phys.Rev. D64 (2001) 123004 · To appear in Phys. Rev. D, reference added
arxiv created 2001/09/20 · openalex publication_date 2001/11/26 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this article we examine the hypothesis that the highest energy cosmic rays are complex nuclei from extragalactic sources. Under reasonable physical assumptions, we show that the nearby metally rich starburst galaxies (M82 and NGC 253) can produce all the events observed above the ankle. This requires diffusion of particles below 1020 eV in extragalactic magnetic fields B ≈ 15 nG. Above 1019 eV, the model predicts the presence of significant fluxes of medium mass and heavy nuclei with small rate of change of composition. Notwithstanding, the most salient feature of the starburst-hypothesis is a slight anisotropy induced by iron debris just before the spectrum-cutoff.