Interactions of UHECRs and interpretation of UHECR measurements

by Dr Denise Boncioli (DESY, Zeuthen, Germany)

Thursday 19 Oct 2017, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Library (GSSI)

The investigation of the interactions of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) in their potential accelerators and during their propagation through the extragalactic space is one of the key points for our understanding of cosmic-ray astrophysics. The flux of the neutrinos produced in these interactions can vary as a function of characteristic parameters of the sources and of the composition of the UHECRs. I will discuss the possibility of using the high-energy neutrinos as a tool to constrain classes of UHECR sources. Moreover, I will demonstrate that the modeling of these interactions has an impact in the predictions for observables as the energy spectrum and the composition of UHECRs at Earth. The need of new inputs from nuclear physics in order to reduce the uncertainties coming from lack of measurements and from different parametrizations in existing codes will be also pointed out.