arXiv subjects

Alexander Korochkin

Publications and source records attributed to Alexander Korochkin.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Reionization, UV Luminosity and 21$\,$cm Sensitivity to Primordial Magnetic Fields: Impact of Energy Losses

Magnetic fields with field strengths between $10^{-17}\,$G and a few Nanogauss are expected to exist today in the intergalactic medium (IGM). Their origin is unknown, but may be of primordial nature, in which case they would have influenced the thermal and ionization history of the IGM as well as the growth of small-scale matter perturbations. In this work, we revisit constraints on Primordial Magnetic fields (PMFs) by consistently accounting for their energy losses through ambipolar diffusion and decaying turbulences from recombination through the epoch of reionization, which progressively reduces the magnetic field strength over time. We implement these effects in ${\tt HyRec}$ and ${\tt exo21cmFAST}$ to model the interplay between PMFs and astrophysical processes up to reionization. Using a neural-network emulator (${\tt NNERO}$), we perform a MCMC analysis that combines late-time probes of the reionization history and galaxy UV luminosity functions. We find that including PMF energy losses significantly relaxes previous bounds, as the reduced field strength suppresses their imprint on observables. Employing a Fisher matrix analysis, we estimate the sensitivity of the 21$\,$cm signal experiment HERA to the PMFs' imprint on intergalactic medium perturbations and show that 21$\,$cm cosmology could significantly improve on current bounds. Our results highlight the importance of modeling PMF evolution self-consistently with the IGM evolution to extract current bounds and future sensitivities.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Bright Cosmic-Ray Source as a Solution to Auger-TA Tensions

The ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) spectra measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger) and the Telescope Array (TA) agree very well below $10^{19.5}$ eV but differ significantly at higher energies. We show that these differences can be explained by a single nearby source superimposed on a nearly isotropic background. Taking into account deflections in Galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields, such a source can account for the excess in the TA spectrum without producing excessive anisotropy. The required hard spectrum of the source and intermediate-mass composition are consistent with previous fits of the Auger-only spectrum and composition. This scenario offers several additional advantages: (i) the source produces a broad excess partially overlapping the TA hotspots, suggesting their possible explanation; (ii) without additional tuning, it reproduces the $\sim90^\circ$ shift in dipole direction observed between the Auger-only and combined Auger-TA analyses; and (iii) the best-fit position of the source lies near M82, the brightest nearby starburst galaxy, making it a plausible source of the UHECR.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

UHECR deflections in the coherent Galactic magnetic field

We study the deflections of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays in several widely used models of the coherent Galactic magnetic field (GMF), including PT11 (Pshirkov et al. [1]), JF12 (Jansson and Farrar [2]), UF23 (Unger and Farrar [3]) and KST24 (Korochkin, Semikoz, and Tinyakov [4]). We propagate particles with rigidities of 5, 10, and 20 EV and analyze the differences in deflection predictions across these GMF models. We identify the GMF components responsible for deflections in various regions of the sky and discuss the uncertainties in modeling these components, as well as potential future improvements.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

The coherent magnetic field of the Milky Way halo, Local Bubble and Fan Region

Recent catalog of Faraday rotation measures (RM) of extragalactic sources together with the synchrotron polarization data from WMAP and Planck provides us with a wealth of information on magnetic fields of the Galaxy. However, the integral character of these observables together with our position inside the Galaxy makes the inference of the coherent Galactic magnetic field (GMF) complicated and ambiguous. We combine several phenomenological components of the GMF -- the spiral arms, the toroidal halo, the X-shaped field and the field of the Local Bubble -- to construct a new model of the regular GMF outside the thin disk. To have control over the relative contributions of the RM and polarization data to the fit we pay special attention to the estimation of errors in data bins. To this end we develop a systematic method which is uniformly applicable to different data sets. This method takes into account individual measurement errors, the variance in the bin as well as fluctuations in the data at angular scales larger than the bin size. This leads to decrease of the errors and, as a result, to better sensitivity of the data to the model content. We cross checked the stability of our method with the new LOFAR data. We found that the four components listed above are sufficient to fit both the RM and polarization data over the whole sky with only a small fraction masked out. Moreover, we have achieved several important improvements compared to previous approaches. Due to account of our location inside of the Local Bubble our model does not require introduction of striated fields. For the first time we showed that the Fan Region can be modeled as a Galactic-scale feature. The pitch angle of the magnetic field in our fit converged to the value around 20 degrees. Interestingly, with value is very close to the direction of the arms inferred recently from Gaia data on upper main sequence stars.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) Science Book (2021 Edition)

Since the science white paper of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) published on arXiv in 2019 [e-Print: 1905.02773 (astro-ph.HE)], LHAASO has completed the transition from a project to an operational gamma-ray astronomical observatory LHAASO is a new generation multi-component facility located in Daocheng, Sichuan province of China, at an altitude of 4410 meters. It aims at measuring with unprecedented sensitivity the spectrum, composition, and anisotropy of cosmic rays in the energy range between 10$^{12}$ and 10$^{18}$~eV, and acting simultaneously as a wide aperture (one stereoradiant) continuously operating gamma-ray telescope in the energy range between 10$^{11}$ and $10^{15}$~eV with the designed sensitivity of 1.3\% of the Crab Unit (CU) above 100 TeV. LHAASO's capability of measuring simultaneously different shower components (electrons, muons, and Cherenkov/fluorescence light), will allow it to investigate the origin, acceleration, and propagation of CR through measurement of the energy spectrum, elemental composition, and anisotropy with unprecedented resolution. The remarkable sensitivity of LHAASO will play a key role in CR physics and gamma-ray astronomy for a general and comprehensive exploration of the high energy universe and will allow important studies of fundamental physics (such as indirect dark matter search, Lorentz invariance violation, quantum gravity) and solar and heliospheric physics. The LHAASO Collaboration organized an editorial working group and finished all editorial work of this science book, to summarize the instrumental features and outline the prospects of scientific researches with the LHAASO experiment.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Account of the baryonic feedback effect in gamma-ray measurements of intergalactic magnetic fields

Intergalactic magnetic fields in the voids of the large-scale structure can be probed via measurements of secondary gamma-ray emission from gamma-ray interactions with extragalactic background light. Lower bounds on the magnetic field in the voids were derived from the non-detection of this emission. It is not clear a priori what kind of magnetic field is responsible for the suppression of the secondary gamma-ray flux: a cosmological magnetic field that might be filling the voids or the field spread by galactic winds driven by star formation and active galactic nuclei. We used IllustrisTNG cosmological simulations to study the effect of magnetized galactic wind bubbles on the secondary gamma-ray flux. We show that within the IllustrisTNG model of baryonic feedback, the galactic wind bubbles typically provide energy-independent secondary flux suppression at the level of about 10%. The observed flux suppression effect has to be due to the cosmological magnetic field in the voids. This might not be the case for a special case when the primary gamma-ray source has a hard intrinsic gamma-ray spectrum that peaks in the energy range above 50 TeV. In this case, the observational data may be strongly affected by the magnetized bubble that is blown by the source host galaxy.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Detectability of large correlation length inflationary magnetic field with Cherenkov telescopes

Magnetic fields occupying the voids of the large scale structure may be a relic from the Early Universe originating from either Inflation or from cosmological phase transitions. We explore the possibility of identifying the inflationary origin of the void magnetic fields and measuring its parameters with gamma-ray astronomy methods. The large correlation length inflationary field is expected to impose a characteristic asymmetry of extended gamma-ray emission that is correlated between different sources on the sky. We show that a set of nearby blazars for which the extended emission is observable in the 0.1-1 TeV band with CTA can be used for the test of inflationary origin of the void magnetic fields.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Search for anomalous features in gamma-ray blazar spectra corrected for the absorption on the extragalactic background light

We consider the ensemble of very-high-energy gamma-ray sources observed at distances and energies where a significant absorption of gamma rays is expected due to pair production on the extragalactic background light (EBL). Previous studies indicated that spectra of these sources, upon correction for the absorption, exhibit unusual spectral hardenings which happen precisely at the energies where the correction becomes significant. Here, we address this subject with the most recent clean sample of distant gamma-ray blazars, making use of published results of imaging atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes and of the Fermi-LAT Pass 8 data, supplemented by the newest absorption models and individual measurements of sources' redshifts. We perform a search for spectral breaks at energies corresponding to unit optical depth with respect to the absorption on EBL. These energies are different for distant and nearby objects, and consequently, such features may not be related to intrinsic properties of the sources. While in some spectra such breaks are not seen, hardenings at distance-dependent energies are present in many of them, though the overall statistical significance of the effect is lower than reported in previous studies. The dependence of the break strength on the redshift found earlier is not confirmed in the new analysis.

astro-ph.HE↗