Nuclear Physics Meets the Sources of the Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

Abstract

The determination of the injection composition of cosmic ray nuclei within astrophysical sources requires sufficiently accurate descriptions of the source physics and the propagation - apart from controlling astrophysical uncertainties. We therefore study the implications of nuclear data and models for cosmic ray astrophysics, which involves the photo-disintegration of nuclei up to iron in astrophysical environments. We demonstrate that the impact of nuclear model uncertainties is potentially larger in environments with non-thermal radiation fields than in the cosmic microwave background. We also study the impact of nuclear models on the nuclear cascade in a gamma-ray burst radiation field, simulated at a level of complexity comparable to the most precise cosmic ray propagation code. We conclude with an isotope chart describing which information is in principle necessary to describe nuclear interactions in cosmic ray sources and propagation.

11 pages, 6 figures. Publication is open access

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• Tidally disrupted stars as a possible origin of both cosmic rays and neutrinos at the highest energies
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• On the common origin of cosmic rays across the ankle and diffuse neutrinos at the highest energies from low-luminosity Gamma-Ray Bursts
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• White Paper and Roadmap for Quantum Gravity Phenomenology in the Multi-Messenger Era
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• SimProp v2r4: Monte Carlo simulation code for UHECR propagation
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• Improved photomeson model for interactions of cosmic ray nuclei
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• Bump-hunting in the diffuse flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos
• The photo-disintegration of ${}^4$He on the cosmic microwave background is less severe than earlier thought
• Photonuclear Reactions in Astrophysics
• Astrophysical neutrino production and impact of associated uncertainties in photo-hadronic interactions of UHECRs
• Evaluations of uncertainties in simulations of propagation of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray nuclei derived from microscopic nuclear models
• Recent results from the Pierre Auger Observatory
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