On The Heavy Chemical Composition of the Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

TL;DR

This paper investigates the chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using Pierre Auger Observatory data, finding that intermediate mass nuclei fit observations well when intergalactic magnetic fields are considered.

Contribution

It introduces a propagation model for UHECR nuclei that constrains source composition based on observational data and magnetic field assumptions.

Findings

Good fits with intermediate mass nuclei when magnetic fields are included.

No viable composition scenarios without intergalactic magnetic fields.

Magnetic fields likely erase source-direction correlations for heavy nuclei.

Abstract

The Pierre Auger Observatory's (PAO) shower profile measurements can be used to constrain the chemical composition of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) spectrum. In particular, the PAO's measurements of the average depth of shower maximum and the fluctuations of the depth of shower maximum indicate that the cosmic ray spectrum is dominated by a fairly narrow distribution (in charge) of heavy or intermediate mass nuclei at the highest measured energies (E > 10^{19} eV), and contains mostly lighter nuclei or protons at lower energies (E ~ 10^{18} eV). In this article, we study the propagation of UHECR nuclei with the goal of using these measurements, along with those of the shape of the spectrum, to constrain the chemical composition of the particles accelerated by the sources of the UHECRs. We find that with modest intergalactic magnetic fields, 0.3 nG in strength with 1 Mpc coherent lengths, good fits to the combined PAO data can be found for the case in which the sources accelerate primarily intermediate mass nuclei (such as nitrogen or silicon). Without intergalactic magnetic fields, we do not find any composition scenarios that can accommodate the PAO data. For a spectrum dominated by heavy or intermediate mass nuclei, the Galactic (and intergalactic) magnetic fields are expected to erase any significant angular correlation between the sources and arrival directions of UHECRs.