Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays Research Articles

Nonparametric Bayesian reconstruction of Galactic magnetic fields using information field theory

Context. Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are charged particles with energies surpassing 1018 eV. Their sources remain elusive because they are obscured by deflections caused by the Galactic magnetic field (GMF). This challenge is further complicated by our limited understanding of the 3D structure of the GMF because current GMF observations primarily consist of quantities that are integrated along the line of sight (LOS). Nevertheless, data from upcoming stellar polarization surveys along with Gaia stellar parallax data are expected to yield local GMF measurements. Aims. This study is the second entry in our exploration of a Bayesian inference approach to the local GMF that uses synthetic local GMF observations that emulate forthcoming local GMF measurements, and attempts to use them to reconstruct its 3D structure. The ultimate aim is to trace back observed UHECRs and thereby update our knowledge about their possible origin. Methods. In this proof-of-concept work, we assumed as ground truth a magnetic field produced by a dynamo simulation of the Galactic ISM. We employed methods of Bayesian statistical inference in order to sample the posterior distribution of the GMF within part of the Galaxy. By assuming a known rigidity and arrival direction of an UHECR, we traced its trajectory back through various GMF configurations drawn from the posterior distribution. Our objective was to rigorously evaluate the performance of our algorithm in scenarios that closely mirror the setting of expected future applications. In pursuit of this, we conditioned the posterior to synthetically integrated LOS measurements of the GMF, in addition to synthetic local plane of sky-component measurements. Results. Our results demonstrate that for all locations of the observed arrival direction on the plane of sky, our algorithm is able to substantially update our knowledge on the original arrival direction of UHECRs with a rigidity of E/Z = 5 × 1019 eV, even without any LOS information. When the integrated data are included in the inference, the regions of the celestial sphere in which the maximum error occurs are greatly reduced. The maximum error is diminished by a factor of about 3 even in these regions in the specific setting we studied. Additionally, we are able to identify the regions in which the largest error is expected to occur.

On the trail of particle rain

Abstract Alan Watson discusses the current status of research into ultra-high energy cosmic rays

Explaining Muon Excess in Cosmic Rays Using the Gluon Condensation Model

Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays are often characterized indirectly by analyzing the properties of secondary cosmic ray particles produced in the collisions with air nuclei. The particle number N μ of muon and the depth of shower maximum X max after air shower cascade are mostly studied to infer the energy and mass of the incident cosmic rays. Research has shown that there is a significant excess in the observed number of muons arriving at the ground from extensive air showers compared to the simulations using the existing cosmic ray hadronic interaction model. To explain this muon excess phenomenon, a new theoretical model, the gluon condensation model, is introduced in this paper and simulated by using the AIRES engine. We assume that the gluon condensation (GC) effect appears mainly in the first collision of the cascade, leading to a significant increase in the strangeness production, consequently, the production rate of kaons is increased, and n K /n π is greater than the value of the usual hadronic interaction process. In the calculation, the model assumes that only pions and kaons are produced in the GC state. The increase of strange particle yield would mean that the energy transferred from the hadronic cascade to the electromagnetic cascade through π 0 → 2γ decay is reduced. This would in turn increase the number of muons at the ground level due to meson decays. Our model provides a new theoretical possibility to explain the muon excess puzzle.

Proton Predominance At UHE Cosmic Rays Through Analysis Of Different Mass Composition Models

Recently, detection of giant (1017 to 1020eV ) and super giant ( Ep >1020 eV ) air showers is gaining importance as the investigation of EAS in these energy ranges is expected to give necessary information on characteristics of high energy nuclear interactions in one hand and for solving the astrophysical problem of Cosmic Ray origin , beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cut-off energy near 1020 eV. Due to the very low Cosmic Ray flux in the UHE range ( > 1017 eV ) direct measurement by balloons or satellites are not possible. The experimental approach realized conventionally uses extended ground-based installations catching data of the induced air showers . An alternative approach is to use a low cost particle detector array called mini-array for detecting UHE cosmic rays by Linsley’s method of arrival time measurement. The miniarray consist of eight plastic scintillation counters covering an area of 2m2 operating for detecting EAS particles of primary energy 1017 -1018 eV based on Linsley’s method of arrival time measurement. An optical detector (5 inch diameter PMT) has been installed at the centre of the miniarray to record the associated optical Cerenkov pulse produced by the ultra-relativistic shower particles in the atmosphere with an aim to derive primary mass composition above 1017 eV. Optical pulses are recorded in one channel of the DSO and the stored data in the wave form memory are transferred to the computer via GPIB interface. The particle detector pulses are triggered with the help of trigger circuit and recorded through other channel of the DSO and transferred to the same DSO. However, the data are subjected to large fluctuation both in particle detection and optical photon detection. Primary energy is estimated through the parameter shower size which is also indirectly measured from a small sample of shower front using miniarray data. Mass composition estimated indirectly relies on simulation model. On the basis of pulse height distribution measurement, the inferred mass composition is predominantly protons, with a tendency of mass composition becoming lighter at the highest energies.

Search for photons above 1018 eV by simultaneously measuring the atmospheric depth and the muon content of air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the most sensitive instrument to detect photons with energies above 1017 eV. It measures extensive air showers generated by ultrahigh energy cosmic rays using a hybrid technique that exploits the combination of a fluorescence detector with a ground array of particle detectors. The signatures of a photon-induced air shower are a larger atmospheric depth of the shower maximum (Xmax) and a steeper lateral distribution function, along with a lower number of muons with respect to the bulk of hadron-induced cascades. In this work, a new analysis technique in the energy interval between 1 and 30 EeV (1 EeV=1018 eV) has been developed by combining the fluorescence detector-based measurement of Xmax with the specific features of the surface detector signal through a parameter related to the air shower muon content, derived from the universality of the air shower development. No evidence of a statistically significant signal due to photon primaries was found using data collected in about 12 years of operation. Thus, upper bounds to the integral photon flux have been set using a detailed calculation of the detector exposure, in combination with a data-driven background estimation. The derived 95% confidence level upper limits are 0.0403, 0.01113, 0.0035, 0.0023, and 0.0021 km−2 sr−1 yr−1 above 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 EeV, respectively, leading to the most stringent upper limits on the photon flux in the EeV range. Compared with past results, the upper limits were improved by about 40% for the lowest energy threshold and by a factor 3 above 3 EeV, where no candidates were found and the expected background is negligible. The presented limits can be used to probe the assumptions on chemical composition of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and allow for the constraint of the mass and lifetime phase space of super-heavy dark matter particles. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Case for Centaurus A as the main source of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays

Case for Centaurus A as the main source of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays

Modeling hadronic interactions in ultra-high-energy cosmic rays within astrophysical environments: A parametric approach

Interactions of ultra-high energy cosmic-rays (UHECRs) accelerated in astrophysical environments have been shown to shape the energy production rate of nuclei escaping from the confinement zone. To address the influence of hadronic interactions, Hadronic Interaction Models (HIMs) come into play. In this context, we present a parameterization capable of capturing the outcomes of two distinct HIMs, namely EPOS-LHC and Sibyll2.3d, in terms of secondary fluxes, including escaping nuclei, nucleons, neutrinos, photons, and electrons. Our parameterization is systematically evaluated against the source codes, both at fixed energy and mass, as well as in a physical case scenario. The comparison demonstrates that our parameterization aligns well with the source codes, establishing its reliability as a viable alternative for analytical or fast Monte Carlo approaches dedicated to the study of UHECR propagation within source environments. This suggests the potential for utilizing our parameterization as a practical substitute in studies focused on the intricate dynamics of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.

The MIZAR ASIC: 64-channel zone-sampling based ASIC for Cherenkov light detection from sub-orbital and orbital altitudes

This work describes the implementation of a 64-channel Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) developed in a commercial 65 nm CMOS technology to readout the signals collected by a camera plane made of Silicon Photo-Multipliers. The aim of the application is the identification of Extensive Air Showers (EASs) by detecting optical Cherenkov light generated by Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) and Neutrinos (UHENUs) from sub-orbital and orbital altitudes. In this context, the ASIC is designed to store each event into an analog memory based on 256 configurable cells per channel. Then the chip forms a hitmap sent to an Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to recognize a pattern of interest. If the signal is externally validated, the digital conversion can occur on-board using an array of 12-bits Wilkinson analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) at 200 MHz of clock. The readout is realized with two serializers running at 400 MHz in double data rate (DDR). Both the number of cells and the resolution can be configured into partitions of 32, 64 or 256 cells and in the range 8–12 bits respectively, becoming a key feature of this ASIC. The chip submission and testing are planned for the forthcoming months.

Search for MeV gamma-ray emission from TeV bright red dwarfs with COMPTEL

The SHALON atmospheric Cherenkov telescope has detected very high energy gamma-ray emission at TeV energies from eight red dwarfs, namely, V388 Cas, V547 Cas, V780 Tau, V962 Tau, V1589 Cyg, GJ 1078, GJ 3684 and GL 851.1. Consequently, these red dwarfs have been suggested as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. In this work, we search for soft gamma-ray emission from these TeV bright red dwarfs between 0.75–30 MeV using archival data from the COMPTEL gamma-ray imaging telescope, as a follow-up to a similar search for GeV gamma-ray emission using the Fermi-LAT telescope. Although, prima-facie, we detect non-zero photon flux from three red dwarfs with high significance, these signals can attributed to contamination from nearby sources such as Crab and Cygnus, which are within the angular resolution of COMPTEL, and have been previously detected as very bright point sources at MeV energies. Therefore, we could not detect any statistically significant signal (> 3σ) from any of these eight red dwarfs from 0.75–30 MeV. We then report the 95% confidence level upper limits on the differential photon flux (at 30 MeV), integral photon flux and integral energy flux for all of the eight red dwarfs. The integral energy flux limits range between 10-11 - 10-10-ergs/cm2/s.

POEMMA-Balloon with Radio: A balloon-born multi-messenger multi-detector observatory

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is a proposed dual-satellite mission to observe Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs), increasing the statistics at the highest energies, and Very-High-Energy Neutrinos (VHENs), following multi-messenger alerts of astrophysical transient events throughout the universe such as gamma-ray bursts and gravitational wave events. POEMMA-Balloon with Radio (PBR) is a scaled-down version of the POEMMA design, adapted to be flown as a payload on one of NASA’s sub-orbital Super Pressure Balloons (SPBs) circling over the Southern Ocean for up to 100 days after a launch from Wanaka, New Zealand. This overview will provide a summary of the mission with its science goals, the instruments, and the current status of PBR.

Closing the Net on Transient Sources of Ultrahigh-energy Cosmic Rays

The arrival directions of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) observed above 4 × 1019 eV provide evidence of localized excesses that are key to identifying their sources. We leverage the 3D matter distribution from optical and infrared surveys as a density model of UHECR sources, which are considered to be transient. Agreement of the sky model with UHECR data imposes constraints on both the emission rate per unit matter and the time spread induced by encountered turbulent magnetic fields. Based on radio measurements of cosmic magnetism, we identify the Local Sheet as the magnetized structure responsible for the kiloyear duration of UHECR bursts for an observer on Earth and find that the turbulence amplitude must be within 0.5–20 nG for a coherence length of 10 kpc. At the same time, the burst-rate density must be above 50 Gpc−3 yr−1 for Local Sheet galaxies to reproduce the UHECR excesses and below 5000 Gpc−3 yr−1 (30,000 Gpc−3 yr−1) for the Milky Way (Local Group galaxies) not to outshine other galaxies. For the transient emissions of protons and nuclei to match the energy spectra of UHECRs, the kinetic energy of the outflows responsible for UHECR acceleration must be below 4 × 1054 erg and above 5 × 1050 erg (2 × 1049 erg) if we consider the Milky Way (or not). The only stellar-sized transients that satisfy both Hillas’ and our criteria are long-duration gamma-ray bursts.

Convolutional Neural Network Processing of Radio Emission for Nuclear Composition Classification of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays

Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are extremely rare energetic particles of ordinary matter in the Universe, traveling astronomical distances before reaching the Earth’s atmosphere. When primary cosmic rays interact with atmospheric nuclei, cascading extensive air showers (EASs) of secondary elementary particles are developed. Radio detectors have proven to be a reliable method for reconstructing the properties of EASs, such as the shower’s axis, its energy, and its maximum (Xmax). This aids in understanding fundamental astrophysical phenomena, like active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts. Concurrently, data science has become indispensable in UHECR research. By applying statistical, computational, and deep learning methods to both real-world and simulated radio data, researchers can extract insights and make predictions. We introduce a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture designed to classify simulated air shower events as either being generated by protons or by iron nuclei. The classification achieved a stable test error of 10%, with Accuracy and F1 scores of 0.9 and an MCC of 0.8. These metrics indicate strong prediction capability for UHECR’s nuclear composition, based on data that can be gathered by detectors at the world’s largest cosmic rays experiment on Earth, the Pierre Auger Observatory, which includes radio antennas, water Cherenkov detectors, and fluorescence telescopes.

Anomalous events in the TUS orbital detector data

The main goal of the TUS experiment was to search for and study ultra high-energy cosmic rays with energies E > 70 EeV. At the same time, the TUS detector registered a number of unusual events, the origin of which was unclear. Events that are unique and not similar to EAS are the subject of the study presented in this paper. Events such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), out-of-aperture upward going EASs accompanied by lightning flashes, as well as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are considered as their possible sources.

Isotropy of Cosmic Rays beyond 10^{20} eV Favors Their Heavy Mass Composition.

We report an estimation of the injected mass composition of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) at energies higher than 10EeV. The composition is inferred from an energy-dependent sky distribution of UHECR events observed by the Telescope Array surface detector by comparing it to the Large Scale Structure of the local Universe. In the case of negligible extragalactic magnetic fields (EGMFs), the results are consistent with a relatively heavy injected composition at E∼10 EeV that becomes lighter up to E∼100 EeV, while the composition at E>100 EeV is very heavy. The latter is true even in the presence of highest experimentally allowed extragalactic magnetic fields, while the composition at lower energies can be light if a strong EGMF is present. The effect of the uncertainty in the galactic magnetic field on these results is subdominant.

Mass composition of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from distribution of their arrival directions with the Telescope Array

Mass composition of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from distribution of their arrival directions with the Telescope Array

Interactions of cosmic rays with the primordial photons of the Universe

Understanding the physical processes involved in the propagation of cosmic rays in the intergalactic media is one of the biggest problems in astrophysics today. It is an important topic because one first tries to identify the sources and later to understand the physical processes that occur when the particles are accelerated to ultra-high energies (E>1018eV). And because cosmic rays are charged particles, they are deflected in the existing magnetic fields as they propagate to Earth, making it very difficult to correlate their direction of arrival with astrophysical sources. Moreover, cosmic rays consist mainly of atomic nuclei interacting with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the extragalactic background light (EBL) during their propagation, and a significant part of their energy is consumed in these processes (for a proton with E∼1021 eV, its energy is approximately halved over a distance of 20 Mpc). In this article, we describe the main processes between background photons and ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. We have also used the equations for comparison with the most commonly used programme in this field to illustrate the physical processes addressed. We conclude that the result of the equations leads to well-established results in the field, such as the importance of EBL for the process of photodesintegration (Allard, 2012).

Galactic origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

Galactic origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

Detection limits and trigger rates for ultra-high energy cosmic ray detection with the EUSO-TA ground-based fluorescence telescope

EUSO-TA is a ground-based fluorescence telescope built to validate the design of ultra-high energy cosmic ray fluorescence detectors to be operated in space with the technology developed within the Joint Exploratory Missions for Extreme Universe Space Observatory (JEM-EUSO) program. It operates at the Telescope Array (TA) site in Utah, USA. With an external trigger provided by the Black Rock Mesa fluorescence detectors of the Telescope Array experiment, with EUSO-TA we observed air-showers from ultra-high energy cosmic rays, as well as laser events from the Central Laser Facility at the TA site and from portable lasers like the JEM-EUSO Global Light System prototype. Since the Black Rock Mesa fluorescence detectors have a ∼30 times larger field of view than EUSO-TA, they allow a primary energy reconstruction based on the observation of a large part of the shower evolution, including the shower maximum, while EUSO-TA observes only a part of it, usually far away from the maximum. To estimate the detection limits of EUSO-TA in energy and distance, a method was developed to re-scale their energy, taking into account that EUSO-TA observes only a portion of the air-showers. The method was applied on simulation sets with showers with different primaries, energy, direction, and impact point on the ground, as well as taking into account the experimental environment. EUSO-TA was simulated with an internal trigger and different elevation angles and electronics. The same method was then applied also to real measurements and compared to the simulations. In addition, the method can also be used to estimate the detection limits for experiments that are operated at high altitudes and in most cases can see the maximum of the showers. This was done for EUSO-SPB1, an instrument installed on a super-pressure balloon. Finally, the expected detection rates for EUSO-TA were also assessed using the prepared simulated event sets. The rates correspond to a few detections per recording session of 30 h of observation, depending on the background level and the configuration of the detector.

Impact of the magnetic horizon on the interpretation of the Pierre Auger Observatory spectrum and composition data

The flux of ultra-high energy cosmic rays reaching Earth above the ankle energy (5 EeV) can be described as a mixture of nuclei injected by extragalactic sources with very hard spectra and a low rigidity cutoff.Extragalactic magnetic fields existing between the Earth and the closest sources can affect the observed CR spectrum by reducing the flux of low-rigidity particles reaching Earth. We perform a combined fit of the spectrum and distributions of depth of shower maximum measured with the Pierre Auger Observatory including the effect of this magnetic horizon in the propagation of UHECRs in the intergalactic space.We find that, within a specific range of the various experimental and phenomenological systematics, the magnetic horizon effect can be relevant for turbulent magnetic field strengths in the local neighbourhood in which the closest sources lieof order Brms ≃ (50–100) nG (20 Mpc/ds)( 100 kpc/Lcoh)1/2, with ds the typical intersource separation and Lcoh the magnetic field coherence length. When this is the case,the inferred slope of the source spectrum becomes softer and can be closer to the expectations of diffusive shock acceleration, i.e., ∝ E-2.An additional cosmic-ray population with higher source density and softer spectra, presumably also extragalactic and dominating the cosmic-ray flux at EeV energies, is also required to reproduce the overall spectrum and composition results for all energies down to 0.6 EeV.

The Coherent Magnetic Field of the Milky Way

We present a suite of models of the coherent magnetic field of the Galaxy based on new divergence-free parametric functions describing the global structure of the field. The model parameters are fit to the latest full-sky Faraday rotation measures (RMs) of extragalactic sources and polarized synchrotron intensity (PI) maps from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck. We employ multiple models for the density of thermal and cosmic-ray electrons in the Galaxy, needed to predict the sky maps of RMs and PI for a given Galactic magnetic field (GMF) model. The robustness of the inferred properties of the GMF is gauged by studying many combinations of parametric field models and electron density models. We determine the pitch angle of the local magnetic field (11° ± 1°), explore the evidence for a grand-design spiral coherent magnetic field (inconclusive), determine the strength of the toroidal and poloidal magnetic halo fields below and above the disk (magnitudes the same for both hemispheres within ≈10%), set constraints on the half-height of the cosmic-ray diffusion volume (≥2.9 kpc), investigate the compatibility of RM- and PI-derived magnetic field strengths (compatible under certain assumptions), and check if the toroidal halo field could be created by the shear of the poloidal halo field due to the differential rotation of the Galaxy (possibly). A set of eight models is identified to help quantify the present uncertainties in the coherent GMF spanning different functional forms, data products, and auxiliary input. We present the corresponding sky maps of rates for axion–photon conversion in the Galaxy and deflections of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays.