Constraints on the source of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using anisotropy vs chemical composition

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The joint analysis of anisotropy signals and chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays offers strong potential for shedding light on the sources of these particles.

• Following up on an earlier idea, this paper studies the anisotropies produced by protons of energy >E/Z, assuming that anisotropies at energy >E have been produced by nuclei of charge Z, which share the same magnetic rigidity.
• We calculate the number of secondary protons produced through photodisintegration of the primary heavy nuclei.
• Making the extreme assumption that the source does not inject any proton, we find that the source(s) responsible for anisotropies such as reported by the Pierre Auger Observatory should lie closer than ~20-30, 80-100 and 180-200 Mpc if the anisotropy signal is mainly composed of oxygen, silicon and iron nuclei respectively.