On the propagation of the highest energy cosmic ray nuclei

1998/08/11 by L.N. Epele, Luis N. Epele, Esteban Roulet · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Neutrino Physics Research #astro-ph #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1126-6708/1998/10/009

published as JHEP 9810:009,1998 · 8 pages

arxiv created 1998/08/11 · openalex publication_date 1998/10/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

We study the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray nuclei through the background of cosmic microwave and intergalactic infrared photons, using recent re-estimates for the density of the last ones. We perform a detailed Monte Carlo simulation to follow the disintegration histories of nuclei starting as Fe and reaching the Earth from extragalactic sources. We obtain the maximum energies of the arriving nuclear fragments as well as the mass composition as a function of the distance traveled. Cosmic rays with energies in excess of 2× 10²⁰ eV cannot originate from Fe nuclei produced in sources beyond 10 Mpc.

Cited by

• On the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray horizon
• On the heavy chemical composition of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays
• Origin of the ankle in the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum, and of the extragalactic protons below it
• The intergalactic propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray nuclei
• Ensemble fluctuations of the flux and nuclear composition of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray nuclei
• The high energy cosmic ray spectrum from relic particle decay
• Predictions for the cosmogenic neutrino flux in light of new data from the Pierre Auger Observatory