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    Isotropy of Cosmic Rays beyond 1020  eV Favors Their Heavy Mass Composition

    R. U. Abbasi1, Y. Abe2, T. Abu-Zayyad1,3, M. Allen3, Y. Arai4, R. Arimura4, E. Barcikowski3, J. W. Belz3, D. R. Bergman3 et al. (Telescope Array Collaboration)

    D. R. Bergman3, S. A. Blake3, I. Buckland3, B. G. Cheon5, M. Chikawa6, T. Fujii4,30, K. Fujisue6,32, K. Fujita6, R. Fujiwara4, M. Fukushima6, G. Furlich3, N. Globus7,†, R. Gonzalez3, W. Hanlon3, N. Hayashida8, H. He7,¶, R. Hibi2, K. Hibino8, R. Higuchi7, K. Honda9, D. Ikeda8, N. Inoue10, T. Ishii9, H. Ito7, D. Ivanov3, A. Iwasaki4, H. M. Jeong11, S. Jeong11, C. C. H. Jui3, K. Kadota12, F. Kakimoto8, O. Kalashev13, K. Kasahara14, S. Kasami15, S. Kawakami4, K. Kawata6, I. Kharuk13, E. Kido7, H. B. Kim5, J. H. Kim3,‡, J. H. Kim3, S. W. Kim11,**, Y. Kimura4, I. Komae4, V. Kuzmin13,*, M. Kuznetsov16,13,§, Y. J. Kwon17, K. H. Lee11, B. Lubsandorzhiev13, J. P. Lundquist18,3, H. Matsumiya4, T. Matsuyama4, J. N. Matthews3, R. Mayta4, K. Mizuno2, M. Murakami15, I. Myers3, K. H. Lee5, S. Nagataki7, K. Nakai4, T. Nakamura19, E. Nishio15, T. Nonaka6, H. Oda4, S. Ogio6, M. Onishi6, H. Ohoka6, N. Okazaki6, Y. Oku15, T. Okuda20, Y. Omura4, M. Ono7, A. Oshima21, H. Oshima6, S. Ozawa22, I. H. Park11, K. Y. Park5, M. Potts3, M. S. Pshirkov13,23, J. Remington3,††, D. C. Rodriguez3, C. Rott3,11, G. I. Rubtsov13, D. Ryu24, H. Sagawa6, R. Saito2, N. Sakaki6, T. Sako6, N. Sakurai4, D. Sato2, K. Sato4, S. Sato15, K. Sekino6, P. D. Shah3, N. Shibata15, T. Shibata6, J. Shikita4, H. Shimodaira6, B. K. Shin24, H. S. Shin4,30, D. Shinto15, J. D. Smith3, P. Sokolsky3, B. T. Stokes3, T. A. Stroman3, Y. Takagi15, K. Takahashi6, M. Takamura25, M. Takeda6, R. Takeishi6, A. Taketa26, M. Takita6, Y. Tameda15, K. Tanaka27, M. Tanaka28, Y. Tanoue4, S. B. Thomas3, G. B. Thomson3, P. Tinyakov16,13,∥, I. Tkachev13, H. Tokuno29, T. Tomida2, S. Troitsky13, R. Tsuda4, Y. Tsunesada4,30, S. Udo8, F. Urban31, D. Warren7, T. Wong3, K. Yamazaki21, K. Yashiro25, F. Yoshida15, Y. Zhezher6,13, and Z. Zundel3 (Telescope Array Collaboration)

    • 1Department of Physics, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60660, USA
    • 2Academic Assembly School of Science and Technology Institute of Engineering, Shinshu University, Nagano, Nagano 380-8554, Japan
    • 3High Energy Astrophysics Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0830, USA
    • 4Graduate School of Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
    • 5Department of Physics and The Research Institute of Natural Science, Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 426-791, Korea
    • 6Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8582, Japan
    • 7Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory, RIKEN, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
    • 8Faculty of Engineering, Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Kanagawa 221-8686, Japan
    • 9Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, Kofu, Yamanashi 400-8511, Japan
    • 10The Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, Saitama 338-8570, Japan
    • 11Department of Physics, SungKyunKwan University, Jang-an-gu, Suwon 16419, Korea
    • 12Department of Physics, Tokyo City University, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-8557, Japan
    • 13Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 117312, Russia
    • 14Faculty of Systems Engineering and Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Minato-ku, Tokyo 337-8570, Japan
    • 15Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Electro-Communication University, Hatsu-cho, Neyagawa-shi, Osaka 572-8530, Japan
    • 16Service de Physique Théorique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels 1050, Belgium
    • 17Department of Physics, Yonsei University, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, Korea
    • 18Center for Astrophysics and Cosmology, University of Nova Gorica, Nova Gorica 5297, Slovenia
    • 19Faculty of Science, Kochi University, Kochi, Kochi 780-8520, Japan
    • 20Department of Physical Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan
    • 21College of Engineering, Chubu University, Kasugai, Aichi 487-8501, Japan
    • 22Quantum ICT Advanced Development Center, National Institute for Information and Communications Technology, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan
    • 23Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow M.V. Lomonosov State University, Moscow 119991, Russia
    • 24Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, UNIST-gil, Ulsan 689-798, Korea
    • 25Department of Physics, Tokyo University of Science, Noda, Chiba 162-8601, Japan
    • 26Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 277-8582, Japan
    • 27Graduate School of Information Sciences, Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima, Hiroshima 731-3194, Japan
    • 28Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, KEK, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
    • 29Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
    • 30Nambu Yoichiro Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Osaka Metropolitan University, Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
    • 31CEICO, Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 182 21, Czech Republic
    • 32Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei City 115201, Taiwan

    • *Deceased.
    • †Present address: KIPAC, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
    • ‡Present address: Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
    • §mkuzn@inr.ac.ru
    • ∥petr.tiniakov@ulb.be
    • Present address: Purple Mountain Observatory, Nanjing 210023, China.
    • **Present address: Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 34132, Korea.
    • ††Present address: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812 USA.

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 041001 – Published 22 July, 2024

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.041001

    Abstract

    We report an estimation of the injected mass composition of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) at energies higher than 10 EeV. 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.

    Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

    See Also

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

    R. U. Abbasi et al. (Telescope Array Collaboration)
    Phys. Rev. D 110, 022006 (2024)

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