2011/06/30 by Peter L. Biermann, Vitor de Souza · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Centaurus A #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Physics #Pierre Auger Observatory #Population #Radio galaxy #Range (aeronautics) #Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/746/1/72
published as ApJ, 746, 2012, 72
openalex publication_date 2012/01/25 · arxiv created 2012/01/30 · arxiv updated 2015/05/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The origin of cosmic rays at all energies is still uncertain. In this paper, we present and explore an astrophysical scenario to produce cosmic rays with energy ranging from below 10(15) to 3 x 10(20) eV. We show here that just our Galaxy and the radio galaxy Cen A, each with their own galactic cosmic-ray particles but with those from the radio galaxy pushed up in energy by a relativistic shock in the jet emanating from the active black hole, are sufficient to describe the most recent data in the PeV to near ZeV energy range. Data are available over this entire energy range from the KASCADE, KASCADE-Grande, and Pierre Auger Observatory experiments. The energy spectrum calculated here correctly reproduces the measured spectrum beyond the knee and, contrary to widely held expectations, no other extragalactic source population is required to explain the data even at energies far below the general cutoff expected at 6 x 10(19) eV, the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min turnoff due to interaction with the cosmological microwave background. We present several predictions for the source population, the cosmic-ray composition, and the propagation to Earth which can be tested in the near future.