An Original Mechanism for the Acceleration of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays

Abstract

We suggest that ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) may be accelerated in ultra-relativistic flows via a one-shot mechanism, the “espresso” acceleration, in which already-energetic particles are generally boosted by a factor of ∼Γ2 in energy, where Γ is the flow Lorentz factor. More precisely, we consider blazar-like ultra-relativistic jets propagating into a halo of “seed” CRs produced in supernova remnants, which can accelerate UHECRs up to 1020 eV. Such a re-acceleration process naturally accounts for the chemical composition measured by the Pierre Auger Collaboration, which resembles the one around and above the knee in the CR spectrum, and is consistent with the distribution of potential sources in the local universe; particularly intriguing is the coincidence of the powerful blazar Mrk 421 with the hotspot reported by the Telescope Array Collaboration.