Insights on the mass composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays from small-scale anisotropy with large-scale structure simulations

Abstract

Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) above 100 EeV provide important clues to the most energetic processes in the Universe. At the highest energies, it is expected that UHECRs originate only from nearby sources because of energy losses during propagation. In such a regime, small-scale anisotropies in arrival directions could appear if the magnetic deflections are sufficiently small, for example, for a limited fraction of UHECRs with relatively low electric charge. Using the Pierre Auger Observatory open data, we confirm there is no significant small-scale anisotropy above 100 EeV within 3 degrees, indicating an almost isotropic sky distribution. To interpret this, we consider that heavier nuclei have higher photodisintegration thresholds due to their smaller Lorentz factors, resulting in longer propagation lengths. Combination with the nearly homogeneous distribution of galaxies at such distances can explain the absence of anisotropies above 100 EeV. Based on this idea, we perform mock observations of UHECRs above 100 EeV assuming pure-proton, iron, and uranium compositions. We predict the expected UHECR distributions using the Millennium Run semi-analytic galaxy catalog and turbulent extragalactic magnetic fields. By varying the source density and magnetic field strength, we evaluate the anisotropy for each case. Without magnetic fields, the observed isotropy above 100 EeV excludes the pure-proton and pure-iron cases. The pure-uranium case can reproduce the observed isotropy when the source density is high and the magnetic field is turbulent. When the turbulent field is strong, both the iron and uranium cases remain consistent with the data, whereas almost no parameter set can explain the observation for a pure-proton composition. Our results constrain the possible combinations of source density and magnetic field strength across different UHECR compositions.

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