Origins of Extragalactic Cosmic Ray Nuclei by Contracting Alignment Patterns induced in the Galactic Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method using the Galactic Magnetic Field as a mass spectrometer to trace the origins of ultra-high energy cosmic ray nuclei, enabling source reconstruction despite background noise.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to identify extragalactic cosmic ray sources by analyzing their deflections in the Galactic Magnetic Field, improving source localization accuracy.

Findings

Source directions can be reconstructed with simulated data.

Method remains effective even with significant isotropic background.

Galactic Magnetic Field acts as a natural mass spectrometer.

Abstract

We present a novel approach to search for origins of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. These particles are likely nuclei that initiate extensive air showers in the Earth's atmosphere. In large-area observatories, the particle arrival directions are measured together with their energies and the atmospheric depth at which their showers maximize. The depths provide rough measures of the nuclear charges. In a simultaneous fit to all observed cosmic rays we use the galactic magnetic field as a mass spectrometer and adapt the nuclear charges such that their extragalactic arrival directions are concentrated in as few directions as possible. Using different simulated examples we show that, with the measurements on Earth, reconstruction of extragalactic source directions is possible. In particular, we show in an astrophysical scenario that source directions can be reconstructed even within a substantial isotropic background.