Heavy nuclei at the end of the cosmic ray spectrum?

Abstract

We provide an account of the possible acceleration of iron nuclei up to energies $\sim 300$ EeV in the nearby, metally-rich starburst galaxy NGC 253. It is suggested that particles can escape from the nuclear region with energies of $\sim 10^{15}$ eV and then could be reaccelerated at the terminal shock of the galactic superwind generated by the starburst, avoiding in this way the photodisintegration expected if the nuclei were accelerated in the central region of high photon density. We have also made estimates of the expected arrival spectrum, which displays a strong dependency with the energy cutoff at the source.

Revised version, to appear in Physical Review D

References in corpus (2)

• On the disintegration of cosmic ray nuclei by solar photons
• High energy protons from PKS 1333-33

Cited by in corpus (52)

• Correlation of the highest-energy cosmic rays with the positions of nearby active galactic nuclei
• Indication of anisotropy in arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays through comparison to the flux pattern of extragalactic gamma-ray sources
• Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies
• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
• Cosmic Neutrino Pevatrons: A Brand New Pathway to Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Particle Physics
• Astrophysical Origins of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays
• Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays: The state of the art before the Auger Observatory
• A new view on Auger data and cosmogenic neutrinos in light of different nuclear disintegration and air-shower models
• Propagation of ultrahigh energy nuclei in clusters of galaxies: resulting composition and secondary emissions
• Physical conditions in potential sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays: Updated Hillas plot and radiation-loss constraints
• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
• The intergalactic propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray nuclei
• Cosmic ray transport and radiative processes in nuclei of starburst galaxies
• High-energy neutrinos from astrophysical accelerators of cosmic ray nuclei
• What IceCube data tell us about neutrino emission from star-forming galaxies (so far)
• Particle acceleration in the superwinds of starburst galaxies
• Acceleration of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays in starburst superwinds
• CHANDRA/VLA Follow-up of TeV J2032+4131, the Only Unidentified TeV Gamma-ray Source
• ASTRI Mini-Array Core Science at the Observatorio del Teide
• Signatures of hadronic cosmic rays in starbursts? High-energy photons and neutrinos from NGC253
• Particle acceleration and multimessenger emission from starburst-driven galactic winds
• Performance and science reach of POEMMA for ultrahigh-energy particles
• High-energy processes in starburst-driven winds
• A comparative study of correlations between arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and positions of their potential astrophysical sources
• Accelerating strangelets via Penrose process in non-BPS fuzzballs
• Modeling the spectrum and composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays with two populations of extragalactic sources
• Searching the Footprint of WIMPZILLAs
• White paper on EUSO-SPB2
• Footprints of Super-GZK Cosmic Rays in the Pilliga State Forest
• The POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) Observatory
• Extragalactic Sources for Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Nuclei
• Ensemble Fluctuations of the Flux and Nuclear Composition of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Nuclei
• Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic Ray Composition from the Distribution of Arrival Directions
• Anisotropy at the end of the cosmic ray spectrum?
• Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and neutrinos from light nuclei composition
• Energy Spectrum of Fast Second Order Fermi Accelerators as Sources of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
• What is the nature and origin of the highest-energy particles in the universe?
• Cosmic rays from the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253: the effect of a low luminosity active galactic nucleus
• POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) design
• Probing the Dark Dimension with Auger data
• Exploring the superwind mechanism for generating ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays using large-scale modeling of starbursts
• Quantum gravity phenomenology at the dawn of the multi-messenger era -- A review
• Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from nearby starburst galaxies
• On the nature of cosmic rays above the Greisen--Zatsepin--Kuz'min cut off
• Unmasking the tail of the cosmic ray spectrum
• Cosmic rays, neutrinos and GeV-TeV gamma rays from Starburst Galaxy NGC 4945
• A pot of gold at the end of the cosmic "raynbow"?
• Nearby active galactic nuclei and starburst galaxies as sources of the measured UHECRs anisotropy signal
• Evidence for UHECR origin in starburst galaxies
• Radio Detection of Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays with Low Lunar Orbiting SmallSats
• Magnetic deflections and possible sources of the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays in the AGASA-HiRes-Yakutsk cluster
• Solving the multi-messenger puzzle of the AGN-starburst composite galaxy NGC 1068