Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and neutrinos from light nuclei composition

Abstract

The baryonic mass composition of ultrahigh energy ($\gtrsim 10^{18}$ eV) cosmic rays (UHECRs) at injection accompanied by their interactions on universal photon backgrounds during propagation directly governs the UHECR flux on the Earth. Secondary neutrinos and photons produced in these interactions serve as crucial astrophysical messengers of UHECR sources. A modeling of the latest data obtained by the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) suggests a mixed element composition of UHECRs with the sub-ankle spectrum being explained by a different class of sources than the super-ankle region ($>10^{18.7}$ eV). In this work, we obtain two kinds of fit to the UHECR spectrum -- one with a single population of sources comprising of ${}^1$H and ${}^2$He, over an energy range commencing at $\approx 10^{18}$ eV -- another for a mixed composition of representative nuclei ${}^1$H, ${}^4$He, ${}^{14}$N and ${}^{28}$Si at injection, for which a fit is obtained from above $\approx 10^{18.7}$ eV. In both cases, we consider the source emissivity evolution to be a simple power-law in redshift. We test the credibility of H+He composition by varying the source properties over a wide range of values and compare the results to that obtained for H+He+N+Si composition, using the Monte Carlo simulation tool CRPropa 3. The secondary electrons and photons are propagated using the cosmic ray transport code DINT. We place limits on the source spectral index, source evolution index and cutoff rigidity of the source population in each case by fitting the UHECR spectrum. Cosmogenic neutrino fluxes can further constrain the abundance fraction and maximum source redshift in case of light nuclei injection model.

18 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in PRD

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• Modeling the spectrum and composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays with two populations of extragalactic sources
• Tau Appearance from High-Energy Neutrino Interactions
• Probing superheavy dark matter through lunar radio observations of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos and the impacts of neutrino cascades
• High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Espresso-Reaccelerated Ions in Jets of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Cosmic-Ray Constraints on the Flux of Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Event KM3-230213A
• Combined Fit of Spectrum and Composition for FR0 Radio-galaxy-emitted Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays with Resulting Secondary Photons and Neutrinos