Cosmogenic Neutrinos Challenge the Cosmic Ray Proton Dip Model
arXiv:1512.05988 · doi:10.3847/0004-637X/825/2/122
Abstract
The origin and composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) remain a mystery. The proton dip model describes their spectral shape in the energy range above GeV by pair production and photohadronic interactions with the cosmic microwave background. The photohadronic interactions also produce cosmogenic neutrinos peaking around GeV. We test whether this model is still viable in light of recent UHECR spectrum measurements from the Telescope Array experiment, and upper limits on the cosmogenic neutrino flux from IceCube. While two-parameter fits have been already presented, we perform a full scan of the three main physical model parameters: source redshift evolution, injected proton maximal energy, and spectral index. We find qualitatively different conclusions compared to earlier two-parameter fits in the literature: a mild preference for a maximal energy cutoff at the sources instead of the Greisen--Zatsepin--Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff, hard injection spectra, and strong source evolution. The predicted cosmogenic neutrino flux exceeds the IceCube limit for any parameter combination. As a result, the proton dip model is challenged at more than 95\% C.L. This is strong evidence against this model independent of mass composition measurements.
published in Apj; 15 pages, 12 figures
References in corpus (21)
- The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory
- The spectrum of isotropic diffuse gamma-ray emission between 100 MeV and 820 GeV
- A combined maximum-likelihood analysis of the high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux measured with IceCube
- Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Measurements at Energies above 10^17.8 eV
- Evidence for Astrophysical Muon Neutrinos from the Northern Sky with IceCube
- Cosmogenic Neutrinos: parameter space and detectabilty from PeV to ZeV
- GZK Neutrinos after the Fermi-LAT Diffuse Photon Flux Measurement
- An improved limit to the diffuse flux of ultra-high energy neutrinos from the Pierre Auger Observatory
- Origin of the ankle in the ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum and of the extragalactic protons below it
- A dip in the UHECR spectrum and the transition from galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays
- IceCube-Gen2: A Vision for the Future of Neutrino Astronomy in Antarctica
- A complete model of the CR spectrum and composition across the Galactic to Extragalactic transition
- Propagation of high-energy cosmic rays in extragalactic turbulent magnetic fields: resulting energy spectrum and composition
- Indications of Negative Evolution for the Sources of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays
- Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Backgrounds as Probes of the High-Energy Universe: Hints of Cascades, General Constraints, and Implications for TeV Searches
- Cosmogenic neutrinos as a probe of the transition from Galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays
- Inhomogeneous extragalactic magnetic fields and the second knee in the cosmic ray spectrum
- Cosmogenic neutrinos and ultra-high energy cosmic ray models
- UHECR escape mechanisms for protons and neutrons from GRBs, and the cosmic ray-neutrino connection
- Signatures of the transition from galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays
- Cosmic rays: the spectrum and chemical composition from to eV
Cited by in corpus (57)
- IceCube-Gen2: The Window to the Extreme Universe
- Combined fit of spectrum and composition data as measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory
- Differential limit on the extremely-high-energy cosmic neutrino flux in the presence of astrophysical background from nine years of IceCube data
- Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies
- Grand Unified Neutrino Spectrum at Earth: Sources and Spectral Components
- Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
- Evidence for a mixed mass composition at the `ankle' in the cosmic-ray spectrum
- Cosmogenic photon and neutrino fluxes in the Auger era
- A new view on Auger data and cosmogenic neutrinos in light of different nuclear disintegration and air-shower models
- Low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts as the sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray nuclei
- Cosmic-Ray and Neutrino Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts with a Nuclear Cascade
- Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
- The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO): A White Paper
- Energetics of High-Energy Cosmic Radiations
- Neutrinos and Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Nuclei from Blazars
- On the common origin of cosmic rays across the ankle and diffuse neutrinos at the highest energies from low-luminosity Gamma-Ray Bursts
- Constraining the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays across and above the ankle with the spectrum and composition data measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory
- Progress towards characterizing ultrahigh energy cosmic ray sources
- Cosmic Ray Models
- Astrophysics Uniquely Enabled by Observations of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos
- White Paper and Roadmap for Quantum Gravity Phenomenology in the Multi-Messenger Era
- Strange fireball as an explanation of the muon excess in Auger data
- Cascade photons as test of protons in UHECR
- SimProp v2r4: Monte Carlo simulation code for UHECR propagation
- Ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray nuclei and neutrinos from engine-driven supernovae
- Neutrinos and Cosmic Rays Observed by IceCube
- Search for Extremely-High-Energy Neutrinos and First Constraints on the Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic-Ray Proton Fraction with IceCube
- Constraining models for the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with a novel combined analysis of arrival directions, spectrum, and composition data measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory
- Implications of gamma-ray observations on proton models of UHECR
- Superheavy Dark Matter and ANITA's Anomalous Events
- Acceleration and propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays
- Probing the Extragalactic Cosmic Rays origin with gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds
- Secondary neutrino and gamma-ray fluxes from SimProp and CRPropa
- Detector Requirements for Model-Independent Measurements of Ultrahigh Energy Neutrino Cross Sections
- Modeling the spectrum and composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays with two populations of extragalactic sources
- Extragalactic magnetic field constraints from ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from local galaxies
- Cosmic neutrino flux and spin flavor oscillations in intergalactic medium
- The Diffuse Gamma-Ray Flux from Clusters of Galaxies
- Energetics of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray nuclei
- Constraints on the proton fraction of cosmic rays at the highest energies and the consequences for cosmogenic neutrinos and photons
- Can astrophysical neutrinos trace the origin of the detected ultra-high energy cosmic rays?
- Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and neutrinos from light nuclei composition
- Cosmogenic neutrino fluxes under the effect of active-sterile secret interactions
- What is the nature and origin of the highest-energy particles in the universe?
- Observable features in (ultra)high energy neutrinos due to active-sterile secret interactions
- Cosmogenic photons strongly constrain UHECR source models
- Search for Ultra-High-Energy Neutrinos with the Telescope Array Surface Detector
- High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Espresso-Reaccelerated Ions in Jets of Active Galactic Nuclei
- The Next-Generation Radio Neutrino Observatory -- Multi-Messenger Neutrino Astrophysics at Extreme Energies
- Two-detector flavor sensitivity to ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinos
- Energy-dependent flavour ratios in neutrino telescopes from charm
- A relook at the GZK Neutrino-Photon Connection: Impact of Extra-galactic Radio Background & UHECR properties
- Constraints on the AGN flares as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from the Fermi-LAT observations
- Aspects of astrophysical particle production and beyond the Standard Model phenomenology
- Implications of gamma-ray and neutrino observations on source models of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays
- SimProp v2r3: Monte Carlo simulation code of UHECR propagation
- High-Energy Neutrino Production in Clusters of Galaxies