Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays from Tidal Disruption Events

TL;DR

This paper presents evidence that tidal disruption events, specifically AT2018hyz, can produce relativistic jets capable of accelerating cosmic rays to ultra-high energies, supporting TDEs as sources of UHECRs.

Contribution

It demonstrates that off-axis jets from TDEs can meet the Hillas criterion and match the observed UHECR luminosity density, providing strong support for TDEs as UHECR sources.

Findings

The jet from AT2018hyz can accelerate particles to ultra-high energies.

The event's rate and power align with UHECR observations.

The radio flare indicates off-axis jet activity consistent with UHECR acceleration.

Abstract

The tidal disruption event AT2018hyz was a regular optically detected one with no special prompt features. However, it suddenly displayed a fast-rising radio flare almost three years after the disruption. The flare is most naturally interpreted as arising from an off-axis relativistic jet. We didn't see the jet at early times as its emission was relativistically beamed away from us. However, we could see the radiation once the jet has slowed down due to interaction with the surrounding matter. Analysis of the radio data enabled estimates of the jet's kinetic energy and opening angle, as well as the conditions (size and magnetic field) within the radio-emitting region. We show here that such a jet satisfies the Hillas condition for the acceleration of UHECRs to the highest energies. We also show that the rate and total power of this event are consistent with the observed luminosity density of UHECRs. These results strongly support earlier suggestions that TDEs are the sources of UHECRs.