arXiv subjects

Andrew M. Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew M. Taylor.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Tentative Evidence for Relativistic Electrons Generated by the Jet of the Young Sun-like Star DG Tau

Synchrotron emission has recently been detected in the jet of a massive protostar, providing further evidence that certain jet formation characteristics for young stars are similar to those found for highly relativistic jets from AGN. We present data at 325 and 610 MHz taken with the GMRT of the young, low-mass star DG Tau, an analog of the Sun soon after its birth. This is the first investigation of a low-mass YSO at at such low frequencies. We detect emission with a synchrotron spectral index in the proximity of the DG Tau jet and interpret this emission as a prominent bow shock associated with this outflow. This result provides tentative evidence for the acceleration of particles to relativistic energies due to the shock impact of this otherwise very low-power jet against the ambient medium. We calculate the equipartition magnetic field strength (0.11 mG) and particle energy (4x10^40 erg), which are the minimum requirements to account for the synchrotron emission of the DG Tau bow shock. These results suggest the possibility of low energy cosmic rays being generated by young Sun-like stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

Parametrization of gamma-ray production cross-sections for pp interactions in a broad proton energy range from the kinematic threshold to PeV energies

Using publicly available Monte Carlo codes as well as compilation of published data on p--p interactions for proton kinetic energy below 2 GeV, we parametrize the energy spectra and production rates of $γ$-rays by simple but quite accurate ($\leq 20 \%$) analytical expressions in a broad range from the kinematic threshold to PeV energies.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

A Galactic Halo Origin of the Neutrinos Detected by IceCube

Recent IceCube results suggest that the first detection of very high energy astrophysical neutrinos have been accomplished. We consider these results at face value in a Galactic origin context. Emission scenarios from both the Fermi bubble and broader halo region are considered. We motivate that such an intensity of diffuse neutrino emission could be Galactic in origin if it is produced from an outflow into the halo region. This scenario requires cosmic ray transport within the outflow environment to be different to that inferred locally within the disk and that activity in the central part of the Galaxy accelerates cosmic rays to trans-"knee" energies before they escape into an outflow. The presence of a large reservoir of gas in a very extended halo around the Galaxy, recently inferred from X-ray observations, implies that relatively modest acceleration power of $10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in PeV energy cosmic rays may be sufficient to explain the observed neutrino flux. Such a luminosity is compatible with that required to explain the observed intensity of cosmic rays around the "knee".

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

UHECR Composition Models

In light of the increasingly heavy UHECR composition at the highest energies, as observed by the Pierre Auger Observatory, the implications of these results on the actual source composition and spectra are investigated. Depending on the maximum energy of the particles accelerated, sources producing hard spectra and/or containing a considerably enhanced heavy component appear a necessary requirement. Consideration is made of two archetypal models compatible with these results. The secondary signatures expected , following the propagation of the nuclear species from source to Earth, are determined for these two example cases. Finally, the effect introduced by the presence of nG extragalactic magnetic fields in collaboration with a large (80 Mpc) distance to the nearest source is discussed.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

Sensitivity of JEM-EUSO to Ensemble Fluctuations in the Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Flux

The flux of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) depends on the cosmic distribution of their sources. Data from CR observations are yet inconclusive about their exact location or distribution, but provide a measure for the average local density of these emitters. Due to the discreteness of the emitters the flux is expected to show ensemble fluctuations on top of the statistical variations, a reflection of the cosmic variance. This effect is strongest for the most energetic cosmic rays due to the limited propagation distance in the cosmic radiation background and is hence a local phenomenon. In this work we study the sensitivity of the JEM-EUSO space mission to ensemble fluctuations on the assumption of uniform distribution of sources, with local source density \sim 10^{-5} Mpc^{-3}. We show that in 3 years of observation JEM-EUSO will be able to probe ensemble fluctuations if the nearest sources are at 3 Mpc, and that after 10 years orbiting the Earth, this pathfinder mission will become sensitive to ensemble fluctuations if the nearest sources are 10 Mpc away. The study of spectral fluctuations from the local source distributions are complementary to but independent of cosmic ray anisotropy studies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Ensemble Fluctuations of the Flux and Nuclear Composition of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Nuclei

The flux and nuclear composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays depend on the cosmic distribution of their sources. Data from cosmic ray observatories are yet inconclusive about their exact location or distribution, but provide a measure for the average local density of these emitters. Due to the discreteness of the emitters the flux and nuclear composition is expected to show ensemble fluctuations on top of the statistical variations, i.e. "cosmic variance". This effect is strongest for the most energetic cosmic rays due to the limited propagation distance in the cosmic radiation background and is hence a local phenomenon. For the statistical analysis of cosmic ray emission models it is important to quantify the possible level of this variance. In this paper we present a completely analytic method that describes the variation of the flux and nuclear composition with respect to the local source density. We highlight that proposed future space-based observatories with exposures of O(10^6 km^2 sr yr) will attain sensitivity to observe these spectral fluctuations in the cosmic ray energy spectrum at Earth relative to the overall power-law fit.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

The need for a local source of UHE CR nuclei

Recent results of the Pierre Auger (Auger) fluorescence detectors indicate an increasingly heavy composition of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs). Assuming that this trend continues up to the highest energies observed by the Auger surface detectors we derive the constraints this places on the local source distribution of UHE CR nuclei. Utilizing an analytic description of UHE CR propagation we derive the expected spectra and composition for a wide range of source emission spectra. We find that sources of intermediate-to-heavy nuclei are consistent with the observed spectra and composition data above the ankle. This consistency requires the presence of nearby sources within 60 Mpc and 80 Mpc for silicon and iron only sources, respectively. The necessity of these local sources becomes even more compelling in the presence nano-Gauss local extragalactic magnetic fields.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Fermi/LAT observations of 1ES 0229+200: implications for extragalactic magnetic fields and background light

We report the observation in the GeV band of the blazar 1ES 0229+200, which over recent years has become one the primary sources used to put constraints on the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) and Extragalactic Magnetic Field (EGMF). We derive constraints on both the EBL and EGMF from the combined Fermi-HESS data set taking into account the direct and cascade components of the source spectrum. We show that the limit on the EBL depends on the EGMF strength and vice versa. In particular, an EBL density twice as high as that derived by Franceschini et al. (2008) is allowed if the EGMF is strong enough. On the other hand, an EGMF strength as low as 6x10^-18 G is allowed if the EBL density is at the level of the lower bound from the direct source counts. We present the combined EBL and EGMF limits on as an exclusion plot in two dimensional parameter space: EGMF strength vs. EBL density.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Analytic Solutions of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Nuclei Revisited

The chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is a key question in particle astrophysics. The measured composition, inferred from the elongation rates of cosmic ray showers, looks in general very different from the initial source composition: resonant photo-disintegration in the cosmic radiation background proceeds rapidly at the highest energies and the initial composition quickly becomes lighter during propagation. For a statistical analysis of continuously improving cosmic ray data it is desirable to know the secondary spectra as precisely as possible. Here, we discuss exact analytic solutions of the evolution equation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray nuclei. We introduce a diagrammatic formalism that leads to a systematic analytic expansion of the exact solution in terms of second order effects of the propagation. We show how the first order corrections of this expansion can improve the predictions of secondary spectra in a semi-analytical treatment.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

Limitations on the Photo-disintegration Process as a Source of VHE Photons

We consider whether photo-disintegration is ever able to provide an effective mechanism for the production of VHE $γ$-ray emission from astrophysical sources. We find that the efficiency of this process is always smaller by a factor $A/Z^{2}$ ($\sim 4/A$) than that of nuclei cooling through Bethe-Heitler pair-production. Furthermore, for sources optically thin to TeV emission, we find that the efficiency of this process can be no more than $3\times 10^{-5}(R_{\rm source}/R_{\rm Larmor})$, where $R_{\rm source}$ is the source size and $R_{\rm Larmor}$ is the CR nuclei Larmor radius. We conclude that this process is unable to provide an effective mechanism for VHE $γ$-ray emission from astrophysical sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

Cosmogenic photons as a test of ultra-high energy cosmic ray composition

Although recent measurements of the shower profiles of ultra-high energy cosmic rays suggest that they are largely initiated by heavy nuclei, such conclusions rely on hadronic interaction models which have large uncertainties. We investigate an alternative test of cosmic ray composition which is based on the observation of ultra-high energy photons produced through cosmic ray interactions with diffuse low energy photon backgrounds during intergalactic propagation. We show that if the ultra-high energy cosmic rays are dominated by heavy nuclei, the flux of these photons is suppressed by approximately an order of magnitude relative to the proton-dominated case. Future observations by the Pierre Auger Observatory may be able to use this observable to constrain the composition of the primaries, thus providing an important cross-check of hadronic interaction models.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

On The Heavy Chemical Composition of the Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

The Pierre Auger Observatory's (PAO) shower profile measurements can be used to constrain the chemical composition of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) spectrum. In particular, the PAO's measurements of the average depth of shower maximum and the fluctuations of the depth of shower maximum indicate that the cosmic ray spectrum is dominated by a fairly narrow distribution (in charge) of heavy or intermediate mass nuclei at the highest measured energies (E > 10^{19} eV), and contains mostly lighter nuclei or protons at lower energies (E ~ 10^{18} eV). In this article, we study the propagation of UHECR nuclei with the goal of using these measurements, along with those of the shape of the spectrum, to constrain the chemical composition of the particles accelerated by the sources of the UHECRs. We find that with modest intergalactic magnetic fields, 0.3 nG in strength with 1 Mpc coherent lengths, good fits to the combined PAO data can be found for the case in which the sources accelerate primarily intermediate mass nuclei (such as nitrogen or silicon). Without intergalactic magnetic fields, we do not find any composition scenarios that can accommodate the PAO data. For a spectrum dominated by heavy or intermediate mass nuclei, the Galactic (and intergalactic) magnetic fields are expected to erase any significant angular correlation between the sources and arrival directions of UHECRs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Planck-scale Lorentz violation constrained by Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays

We investigate the consequences of higher dimension Lorentz violating, CPT even kinetic operators that couple standard model fields to a non-zero vector field in an Effective Field Theory framework. Comparing the ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum reconstructed in the presence of such terms with data from the Pierre Auger observatory allows us to establish two sided bounds on the coefficients of the mass dimension five and six operators for the proton and pion. Our bounds imply that for both protons and pions, the energy scale of Lorentz symmetry breaking must be well above the Planck scale. In particular, the dimension five operators are constrained at the level of $10^{-3} M_{\rm Planck}^{-1}$. The magnitude of the dimension six proton coefficient is bounded at the level of $10^{-6} M_{Planck}^{-2}$ except in a narrow range where the pion and proton coefficients are both negative and nearly equal. In this small area, the magnitude of the dimension six proton coefficient must only be below $10^{-3} M_{\rm Planck}^{-2}$. Constraints on the dimension six pion coefficient are found to be much weaker, but still below $M_{\rm Planck}^{-2}$.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

The Spectral Shape and Photon Fraction as Signatures of the GZK-Cutoff

With the prospect of measuring the fraction of arriving secondary photons, produced through photo-pion energy loss interactions of ultra high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) protons with the microwave background during propagation, we investigate how information about the local UHECR source distribution can be inferred from the primary (proton) to secondary (photon) ratio. As an aid to achieve this, we develop an analytic description for both particle populations as a function of propagation time. Through a consideration of the shape of the GZK cut-off and the corresponding photon fraction curve, we investigate the different results expected for both different maximum proton energies injected by the sources, as well as a change in the local source distribution following a perturbative deformation away from a homogeneous description. At the end of the paper, consideration is made as to how these results are modified through extra-galactic magnetic field effects on proton propagation. The paper aims to demonstrate how the shape of the cosmic ray flux in the cut-off region, along with the photon fraction, are useful indicators of the cutoff origin as well as the local UHECR source distribution.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2009

Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray, Neutrino, and Photon Propagation and the Multi-Messenger Approach

The propagation of UHECR nuclei for A=1 (protons) to A=56 (iron) from cosmological sources through extragalactic space is discussed in the first lecture. This is followed in the second and third lectures by a consideration of the generation and propagation of secondary particles produced via the UHECR loss interactions. In the second lecture we focus on the generation of the diffuse cosmogenic UHE-neutrino flux. In the third lecture we investigate the arriving flux of UHE-photon flux at Earth. In the final lecture the results of the previous lectures are put together in order to provide new insights into UHECR sources. The first of these providing a means with which to investigate the local population of UHECR sources through the measurement of the UHECR spectrum and their photon fraction at Earth. The second of these providing contraints on the UHECR source radiation fields through the possible observation at Earth of UHECR nuclei.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2008

The Intergalactic Propagation of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Nuclei: An Analytic Approach

It is likely that ultra-high energy cosmic rays contain a significant component of heavy or intermediate mass nuclei. The propagation of ultra-high energy nuclei through cosmic radiation backgrounds is more complicated than that of protons and its study has required the use of Monte Carlo techniques. We present an analytic method for calculating the spectrum and the composition at Earth of ultra-high energy cosmic rays which start out as heavy nuclei from their extragalactic sources. The results obtained are in good agreement with those obtained using numerical methods.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

The cosmological consequence of an obscured AGN population on the radiation efficiency

In light of recent indications for a large population of obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs), we revisit the mean radiation efficiency from accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs), epsilon, applying a bayesian approach. We use the integrated comoving energy density emitted by AGNs and compare it to the mass density of local SMBHs. When considering only optically-selected unobscured AGNs, we derive log_10[epsilon]=-1.77+0.16-0.11 or epsilon=1.7+0.8-0.4%. Using the AGNs selected using hard X-rays, which include unabsorbed and Compton-thin absorbed AGNs, we find log_10[epsilon]=-1.20+0.15-0.10 or epsilon=6.4+2.6-1.3%. Using optically-selected AGNs, and correcting for the obscured population, we inferr log_10[epsilon]=-1.17+0.11-0.08 or epsilon=6.7+1.9-1.1%, which we consider our best estimate. We also repeat this calculation for intrinsically luminous AGNs (M_B<-23, quasars), comparing to the SMBH mass density in local elliptical galaxies, and find log_10[epsilon]=-1.27+0.15-0.11 or epsilon=5.4+2.2-1.2%. We discuss how our results can be used to estimate the mean spin of accreting SMBHs, both assuming the standard thin-disk model of accretion onto black holes and also comparing to more recent simulations. Our results can rule out maximally rotating SMBHs ( =0.998 Gm_bh/c^2) at the >=98% confidence level, as well as high rotation values ( >=0.9 Gm_bh/c^2) with >=92% confidence. Our preferred values of are ~0.25-0.60 Gm_bh/c^2, although even these might be overestimated. Hence, we find that on average, SMBHs are not rapidly spinning during accretion. Finally, using an independent measurement of Eddington ratios, we estimate the SMBH e-folding time for the brightest AGNs (quasars) to be =100+151-60 Myr.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

High-energy neutrinos from astrophysical accelerators of cosmic ray nuclei

Ongoing experimental efforts to detect cosmic sources of high energy neutrinos are guided by the expectation that astrophysical accelerators of cosmic ray protons would also generate neutrinos through interactions with ambient matter and/or photons. However there will be a reduction in the predicted neutrino flux if cosmic ray sources accelerate not only protons but also significant number of heavier nuclei, as is indicated by recent air shower data. We consider plausible extragalactic sources such as active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts and starburst galaxies and demand consistency with the observed cosmic ray composition and energy spectrum at Earth after allowing for propagation through intergalactic radiation fields. This allows us to calculate the expected neutrino fluxes from the sources, normalised to the observed cosmic ray spectrum. We find that the likely signals are still within reach of next generation neutrino telescopes such as IceCube.

astro-ph↗