Acceleration and propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays

TL;DR

This paper reviews the physics, propagation, and potential sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays, highlighting their significance for astrophysics and fundamental physics, and discussing different models of their acceleration and composition.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of the current understanding of ultra high energy cosmic rays, including propagation, acceleration models, and composition scenarios, with implications for astrophysics and particle physics.

Findings

Propagation models detail interactions with photon backgrounds and magnetic fields.

Two main composition scenarios: protons only or mixed nuclei.

Implications for source identification and secondary particle production.

Abstract

We review the physics of the highest energy cosmic rays. The discovery of their sources, still unknown, will reveal the most energetic astrophysical objects in the universe and could unveil new physics beyond the standard model of particle physics. We discuss the details of propagation of these high energy particles, their interaction with astrophysical photon backgrounds and intergalactic magnetic fields, and the production of secondary cosmogenic particles associated to their transport. We examine different models of acceleration, reviewing the principal astrophysical objects that could energise cosmic rays until the highest energies. Given the uncertainties in the observed mass composition, we review the two alternative scenarios of a composition made only by protons or by protons and heavier nuclei; discussing the consequences of the two scenarios in terms of sources, acceleration mechanisms and production of secondary cosmogenic gamma rays and neutrinos.