Current constraints from cosmogenic neutrinos on the fraction of protons in UHECRs

TL;DR

This paper discusses how current and future neutrino observations can constrain the proportion of protons in ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, independent of hadronic interaction models.

Contribution

It identifies a specific energy 'sweet spot' where neutrino flux depends mainly on source evolution and proton fraction, enabling composition constraints.

Findings

Current neutrino limits disfavor high proton fractions with strong source evolution.

The 'sweet spot' at 1 EeV neutrino energy simplifies composition constraints.

Upcoming experiments will further tighten the proton fraction limits.

Abstract

Cosmogenic neutrinos are created when ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) interact with extragalactic photon backgrounds. In general, the expected flux of these cosmogenic neutrinos depends on multiple parameters, describing the sources and propagation of UHECRs. In our recent paper (van Vliet et al. 2019), we show that a `sweet spot` occurs at a neutrino energy of $E_{\nu} \sim 1$ EeV. At that energy the flux mainly depends on two parameters, the source evolution and the fraction of protons in UHECRs at Earth for $E_p \gtrsim 30$ EeV. Therefore, with current upper limits on the cosmogenic neutrino flux at $E_{\nu} \sim 1$ EeV and assuming a certain source class, a constraint on the composition of UHECRs can be obtained. This constraint is independent of hadronic interaction models and indicates that the combination of a large proton fraction and a strong source evolution is disfavored. Upcoming neutrino experiments will be able to constrain the fraction of protons in UHECRs even further, and for any realistic model for the evolution of UHECR sources.