Update on tests of the Cen A neutron-emission model of highest energy cosmic rays

Understand

We propose that neutron emission from Cen A dominates the cosmic ray sky at the high end of the spectrum.

• Neutrons that are able to decay generate proton diffusion fronts, whereas those that survive decay produce a spike in the direction of the source.
• We use recent data reported by the Pierre Auger Collaboration to normalize the injection spectrum and estimate the required luminosity in cosmic rays.
• We find that such a luminosity, L_{CR} ~ 5 x 10^{40} erg/s, is considerably smaller than the bolometric luminosity of Cen A, L_{bol} ~ 10^{43} erg/s.