Propagation of UHE protons through a magnetized large scale structure

Abstract

The propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays is affected by the extragalactic magnetic fields (EGMFs) that were produced during the course of large scale structure formation of the universe. We adopt a novel model where the large scale EGMFs are estimated from local dynamic properties of the gas flows in hydrodynamic simulations of a concordance λCDM universe. Using the model EGMFs, we calculate the deflection angle, time delay and energy spectrum of protons with E > 1019 eV that are injected at cosmological sources and then travel through the large scale structure of the universe, losing the energy due to interactions with the cosmic background radiation. Implications of this study on the origin of UHECRs are discussed.