Cosmic ray propagation with CRPropa 3

Rafael Alves Batista ,M Erdmann ,G Mueller ,Karl-Heinz Kampert ,A Van Vliet ,D Walz ,G Sigl ,Carmelo Evoli ,D Kuempel ,T Winchen

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/608/1/012076

Abstract

Solving the question of the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) requires the development of detailed simulation tools in order to interpret the experimental data and draw conclusions on the UHECR universe. CRPropa is a public Monte Carlo code for the galactic and extragalactic propagation of cosmic ray nuclei above ∼ 1017 eV, as well as their photon and neutrino secondaries. In this contribution the new algorithms and features of CRPropa 3, the next major release, are presented. CRPropa 3 introduces time-dependent scenarios to include cosmic evolution in the presence of cosmic ray deflections in magnetic fields. The usage of high resolution magnetic fields is facilitated by shared memory parallelism, modulated fields and fields with heterogeneous resolution. Galactic propagation is enabled through the implementation of galactic magnetic field models, as well as an efficient forward propagation technique through transformation matrices. To make use of the large Python ecosystem in astrophysics CRPropa 3 can be steered and extended in Python.

Highlights

The question of the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) continues to be of high interest
The simulation tool should be flexible enough to cover the large parameter space of possible astrophysical scenarios, in order to constrain the origin of UHECRs in comparison with experimental data
Example application In the following we present an example of a 3D simulation of cosmic ray nuclei through a structured universe and consider the galactic propagation with the lensing technique

Summary

Introduction

The question of the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) continues to be of high interest. CRPropa is a public Monte Carlo code for the galactic and extragalactic propagation of cosmic ray nuclei above ∼ 1017 eV, as well as their photon and neutrino secondaries. CRPropa 3 introduces time-dependent scenarios to include cosmic evolution in the presence of cosmic ray deflections in magnetic fields.

Results

Conclusion