Towards a model of population of astrophysical sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays

TL;DR

This paper develops a toy model for extragalactic sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, linking black hole properties to cosmic-ray acceleration and comparing the model with observational data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel population model based on black hole mass functions to explain the origins of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.

Findings

The model aligns with observed cosmic-ray spectra.

Black hole mass influences cosmic-ray acceleration efficiency.

Population distribution matches astrophysical data.

Abstract

We construct and discuss a toy model of the population of numerous non-identical extragalactic sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. In the model, cosmic-ray particles are accelerated in magnetospheres of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei, the key parameter of acceleration being the black-hole mass. We use astrophysical data on the redshift-dependent black-hole mass function to describe the population of these cosmic-ray accelerators, from weak to powerful, and confront the model with cosmic-ray data.