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The Curious Case of the Maximum Rigidity Distribution of Ultra-high Energy Cosmic-Ray Accelerators

Oikonomou, Foteini ; Ehlert, Domenik ; Unger, Michael 1
1 Institut für Astroteilchenphysik (IAP), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Abstract (englisch):

A standard assumption among models of candidate source populations of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is that all sources in the population accelerate particles to the same maximum energy. Motivated by the fact that candidate astrophysical accelerators exhibit a vast diversity in terms of their relevant properties, such as luminosity, Lorentz factor, and magnetic field strength, we study the compatibility of a population of sources with non-identical maximum cosmic-ray energies with the observed energy spectrum and composition of UHECRs at Earth. For this purpose, we compute the UHECR spectrum emerging from a population of sources with a power-law, or broken-power-law, distribution of maximum energies applicable to a broad range of astrophysical scenarios. We find that for a wide range of studied models, the maximum energies of the UHECR accelerators must be nearly identical in order to be compatible with the UHECR data, in stark contrast to the variance expected for the astrophysical source models considered. A substantial variance of the maximum energy is only consistent with the UHECR data if the maximum energies of the UHECR sources follow a broken power-law distribution with a very steep spectrum above the break. ... mehr


Verlagsausgabe §
DOI: 10.5445/IR/1000163324
Veröffentlicht am 07.11.2023
Cover der Publikation
Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Astroteilchenphysik (IAP)
Publikationstyp Proceedingsbeitrag
Publikationsjahr 2023
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator KITopen-ID: 1000163324
HGF-Programm 51.13.03 (POF IV, LK 01) Kosmische Strahlung Auger
Erschienen in 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2023) - Cosmic-Ray Physics (Indirect, CRI)
Veranstaltung 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2023), Nagoya, Japan, 26.07.2023 – 03.08.2023
Verlag Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)
Seiten Art.-Nr.: 240
Serie Proceedings of Science ; 444
Vorab online veröffentlicht am 25.07.2023
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