The ultra-high energy cosmic rays image of Virgo A

TL;DR

This paper models the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from Virgo A, considering detailed Galactic magnetic fields, to identify potential cosmic ray sources and their arrival directions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed magnetic field model including turbulence to analyze cosmic ray images from Virgo A, a nearby radiogalaxy, for the first time.

Findings

Unique cosmic ray image of Virgo A due to its position

Method for identifying cosmic rays from Virgo A

Implications for source composition and magnetic field effects

Abstract

Arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from the direction of ten brightest radio sources lying within 50 Mpc from our Galaxy were studied by using recent models of the largescale Galactic magnetic field. A detailed study, where also small-scale turbulent magnetic field component was implemented, is presented for the radiogalaxy Virgo A. This radiogalaxy is located far from the Galactic plane which leads to a unique image of this UHECR source candidate, if the flux is composed from a mixture of intermediate mass nuclei. We present a method suitable for identifying cosmic rays arriving from this close-by radiogalaxy.