Significance of the second dip in the ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum

• Authors: Tadeusz Wibig
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

A new feature in the spectrum of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) has been announced in the paper by Berezinsky, Gazizov and Kachelrieβ. The ratio of the solution of the exact transport equation to its solution in the continuous energy loss limit shows intriguing features which, according to the Authors, are related to the very nature of the energy loss processes of UHECR: the very sharp second dip predicted at 6.3 × 1019 eV can be used as an energy calibration point and also as the UHECR mass indicator for big future cosmic ray experiments. In the present paper we would like to advocate that this statement is an overinterpretation. The second dip is a result of an inappropriate approximation used, and thus it cannot help to understand the nature of UHECR in any way.

Keywords

EN

cosmic rays; ultra high energy cosmic rays; propagation

Discipline

• 98.70.Sa: Cosmic rays (including sources, origin, acceleration, and interactions)(see also 26.40.+r Cosmic ray nucleosynthesis—in Nuclear astrophysics)
• 13.85.Tp: Cosmic-ray interactions(see also 96.50.S- Cosmic rays in interplanetary physics)

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Open Physics
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 528-538

Dates

published

1 - 12 - 2007

online

1 - 12 - 2007

Contributors

author

Tadeusz Wibig

• Theoretical Physics Departement, University of Łódź Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Uniwersytecka 5, 90-950, Łódź, Poland

References

• [1] V. Berezinsky, A. Gazizov and M. Kachelrieβ: “Second dip as a signature of ultrahigh energy proton interactions with cosmic microwave background radiation”, Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 97, (2006), art. 231101.
• [2] J. Szabelski, T. Wibig and A.W. Wolfendale: “Cosmic rays of the highest energies: The case for extragalactic heavy nuclei”, Astropart. Phys., Vol. 17, (2002), pp. 125–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0927-6505(01)00142-6[Crossref]
• [3] T. Wibig and A.W. Wolfendale: “Ultra high energy cosmic rays”, subm. J. Phys. G.
• [4] T. Wibig and A.W. Wolfendale: “Ultra-high energy cosmic rays from transient extragalactic sources”, J. Phys. G, Vol. 30, (2004), pp. 525–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0954-3899/30/4/012[Crossref]
• [5] T. Wibig and A.W. Wolfendale: “At what particle energy do extragalactic cosmic rays start to predominate?”, J. Phys. G, Vol. 31, (2005), pp. 255–264; G. Sigl: “Non-Universal Spectra of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Ray Primaries and Secondaries in a Structured Universe”, Preprint: arXiv:astro-ph/0703403. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0954-3899/31/3/005

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s11534-007-0030-9