2018/01/31 by Luis Alfredo Anchordoqui · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.HE #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.97.063010
published as Phys. Rev. D 97, 063010 (2018) · To be published in PRD. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0901.2361 by other authors
arxiv created 2018/03/04 · arxiv updated 2018/03/28
The sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) have been stubbornly elusive. However, the latest report of the Pierre Auger Observatory provides a compelling indication for a possible correlation between the arrival directions of UHECRs and nearby starburst galaxies. We argue that if starbursts are sources of UHECRs, then particle acceleration in the large-scale terminal shock of the superwind that flows from the starburst engine represents the best known concept model in the market. We investigate new constraints on the model and readjust free parameters accordingly. We show that UHECR acceleration above about 1011 GeV remains consistent with observation. We also show that the model could accommodate hard source spectra as required by Auger data. We demonstrate how neutrino emission can be used as a discriminator among acceleration models.