Propagation of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays and the Production of Cosmogenic Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper updates the SimProp Monte Carlo code to model ultra high energy cosmic ray propagation and predicts cosmogenic neutrino fluxes, using recent IceCube, Pierre Auger, and Telescope Array data to constrain source models.

Contribution

The paper introduces an updated version of the SimProp code for simulating cosmic ray propagation and neutrino production, integrating recent experimental data to refine source hypotheses.

Findings

IceCube PeV neutrino events constrain source models.

Recent data nearly exclude several ultra high energy cosmic ray source hypotheses.

Results inform future detector discovery potential.

Abstract

We present an updated version of the {\it SimProp} Monte Carlo code to study the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays in astrophysical backgrounds computing the cosmogenic neutrino fluxes expected on earth. The study of secondary neutrinos provides a powerful tool to constrain the source models of these extremely energetic particles. We will show how the newly detected IceCube neutrino events at PeV energies together with the the latest experimental results of the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array experiment are almost at the level of excluding several hypothesis on the astrophysical sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays. Results presented here can be also used to evaluate the discovery capabilities of future high energy cosmic rays and neutrino detectors.