Origin of the ankle in the ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum and of\n the extragalactic protons below it

2015/12/01 by Glennys R. Farrar, M. Unger, Farrar, Glennys R. +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Neutrino Physics Research #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1512.00484

Abstract

The sharp change in slope of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR)\nspectrum around 10^18.6 eV (the ankle), combined with evidence of a light but\nextragalactic component near and below the ankle which evolves to intermediate\ncomposition above, has proved exceedingly challenging to understand\ntheoretically. We show that for a range of source conditions,\nphoto-disintegration of ultra-high energy nuclei in the region surrounding a\nUHECR accelerator naturally accounts for the observed spectrum and composition\nof the entire extragalactic component, which dominates above about 10^17.5\neV. The mechanism has a clear signature in the spectrum and flavors of\nneutrinos.\n

Cited by

• Extreme High-Energy Neutrinos: IceCube vs. KM3NeT
• Probing UHECR sources - Constraints from cosmic-ray measurements

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