Identifying Nearby UHECR Accelerators using UHE (and VHE) Photons

TL;DR

This paper explores how ultra-high energy photons can identify nearby cosmic ray sources within 30 Mpc, using the Pierre Auger Observatory's sensitivity to detect signals that indicate the origin and composition of UHECRs.

Contribution

It demonstrates the potential to detect photons from nearby UHECR sources, linking photon signals to the origin and composition of cosmic rays.

Findings

Photon signals from nearby sources are detectable by Auger.

Detection would indicate a light composition of UHECRs.

Photon detection could confirm the source of UHECRs within 30 Mpc.

Abstract

Ultra-high energy photons (UHE, E > 10^19 eV) are inevitably produced during the propagation of 10^20 eV protons in extragalactic space. Their short interaction lengths (<20 Mpc) at these energies, combined with the impressive sensitivity of the Pierre Auger Observatory detector to these particles, makes them an ideal probe of nearby ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) sources. We here discuss the particular case of photons from a single nearby (within 30 Mpc) source in light of the possibility that such an object might be responsible for several of the UHECR events published by the Auger collaboration. We demonstrate that the photon signal accompanying a cluster of a few > 6x10^19 eV UHECRs from such a source should be detectable by Auger in the near future. The detection of these photons would also be a signature of a light composition of the UHECRs from the nearby source.