Speaker
Bing Theodore Zhang
(Institute of high energy physics, CAS)
Description
We investigate the propagation of ultraheavy (UH) nuclei as ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). We show that their energy loss lengths at $\lesssim300$~EeV are significantly longer than those of protons and intermediate-mass nuclei, and that the highest-energy cosmic rays with energies beyond $\sim100$~EeV, including the Amaterasu particle, may originate from such UH-UHECRs. We derive constraints on the contribution of UH-UHECR sources, and find that they are consistent with energy generation rate densities of UHECRs from collapsars and neutron star mergers.
Author
Bing Theodore Zhang
(Institute of high energy physics, CAS)
Co-authors
Kohta Murase
(Penn State University)
Mukul Bhattacharya
(WIPAC (UW Madison))
Nicholas Ekanger
(Virginia Tech)
Shunsaku Horiuchi
