HERMES: Simulating the Propagation of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

Understand

The study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) at Earth cannot prescind from the study of their propagation in the Universe.

• In this paper, we present HERMES, the \emph{ad hoc} Monte Carlo code we have developed for the realistic simulation of UHECR propagation.
• We discuss the modeling adopted to simulate the cosmology, the magnetic fields, the interactions with relic photons and the production of secondary particles.
• In order to show the potential applications of HERMES for astroparticle studies, we provide an estimation of the surviving probability of UHE protons, the GZK horizons of nuclei and the all-particle spectrum observed at Earth in different astrophysical scenarios.