Evaluations of uncertainties in simulations of propagation of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray nuclei derived from microscopic nuclear models

TL;DR

This study uses microscopic nuclear models to calculate photodisintegration cross sections for ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray nuclei, revealing significant uncertainties in propagation simulations that impact spectrum predictions.

Contribution

It introduces RPA-based nuclear cross section calculations into cosmic-ray propagation models, highlighting their impact on UHECR spectrum and composition predictions.

Findings

Differences in spectrum predictions can exceed statistical uncertainties.

RPA calculations show larger deviations than default models in CRPropa.

Uncertainties affect interpretation of UHECR source properties.

Abstract

Photodisintegration is a main energy loss process for ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) nuclei in intergalactic space. Therefore, it is crucial to understand systematic uncertainty in photodisintegration when simulating the propagation of UHECR nuclei. In this work, we calculated the cross sections using the random phase approximation (RPA) of density functional theory (DFT), a microscopic nuclear model. We calculated the $E1$ strength of 29 nuclei using three different density functionals. We obtained the cross sections of photonuclear reactions, including photodisintegration, with the $E1$ strength. Then, we implemented the cross sections in the cosmic-ray propagation code CRPropa. We found that assuming certain astrophysical parameter values, the difference between UHECR energy spectrum predictions using the RPA calculation and the default photodisintegration model in CRPropa can be more than the statistical uncertainty of the spectrum. We also found that the differences between the RPA calculations and CRPropa default in certain astrophysical parameters obtained by a combined fit of UHECR energy spectrum and composition data assuming a phenomenological model of UHECR sources can be more than the uncertainty of the data.