Cosmogenic photon fluxes at ultra-high energies
Abstract
During their propagation, ultra-high energy cosmic rays produce cosmogenic photons. The expected flux level of these photons may vary by orders of magnitude depending on parameters such as the spectrum and composition of cosmic rays at injection or the source distance. We investigate the photon yields for various assumptions on injection parameters. The photon yield is largest for proton-emitting sources at about 15 Mpc distance for cosmogenic photons above 1018 eV. While the photon yield from protons always exceeds the one from heavier nuclei of the same total energy, the differences are reduced for larger source distances. Then, we quantify the cosmogenic photon fluxes for different source scenarios. We regard mixed-composition scenarios that were found to provide a reasonable description of the data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. In addition, benchmark scenarios leading to comparably high (``maximum'') or low (``minimum'') photon fluxes are determined assuming pure proton or pure iron primaries. For the mixed-composition scenarios that do not contain initial protons, the predicted cosmogenic photon fluxes are below present experimental limits by more than 1.5 orders of magnitude. In case of a substantial fraction of protons at the highest energies, the related photon flux might be in reach. Certain parameter combinations of pure proton scenarios are constrained already by present photon limits.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{niechciol2026cosmogenic,
title = {{Cosmogenic photon fluxes at ultra-high energies}},
author = {Marcus Niechciol and Chiara Jane Papior and Markus Risse},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.14670},
eprint = {2607.14670},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14670},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Cosmogenic photon fluxes at ultra-high energies
AU - Marcus Niechciol
AU - Chiara Jane Papior
AU - Markus Risse
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.14670
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14670
AB - During their propagation, ultra-high energy cosmic rays produce cosmogenic photons. The expected flux level of these photons may vary by orders of magnitude depending on parameters such as the spectrum and composition of cosmic rays at injection or the source distance. We investigate the photon yields for various assumptions on injection parameters. The photon yield is largest for proton-emitting sources at about 15 Mpc distance for cosmogenic photons above 10^18 eV. While the photon yield from protons always exceeds the one from heavier nuclei of the same total energy, the differences are reduced for larger source distances. Then, we quantify the cosmogenic photon fluxes for different source scenarios. We regard mixed-composition scenarios that were found to provide a reasonable description of the data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. In addition, benchmark scenarios leading to comparably high (``maximum'') or low (``minimum'') photon fluxes are determined assuming pure proton or pure iron primaries. For the mixed-composition scenarios that do not contain initial protons, the predicted cosmogenic photon fluxes are below present experimental limits by more than 1.5 orders of magnitude. In case of a substantial fraction of protons at the highest energies, the related photon flux might be in reach. Certain parameter combinations of pure proton scenarios are constrained already by present photon limits.
ER -