Neutrinos and Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Nuclei from Blazars

Understand

We discuss the production of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) nuclei and neutrinos from blazars.

• We compute the nuclear cascade in the jet for both BL Lac objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), and in the ambient radiation zones for FSRQs as well.
• By modeling representative spectral energy distributions along the blazar sequence, two distinct regimes are identified, which we call "nuclear survival" -- typically found in low-luminosity BL Lacs, and "nuclear cascade" -- typically found in high-luminosity FSRQs.
• We quantify how the neutrino and cosmic-ray (CR) emission efficiencies evolve over the blazar sequence, and demonstrate that neutrinos and CRs come from very different object classes.