Monopole annihilation and highest energy cosmic rays

Journal Article · Sat Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 1995 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.51.4079· OSTI ID:6474231

Bhattacharjee, P ^[1]; Sigl, G ^[2]

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1. Isaac Newton Institute, University of Cambridge, 20 Clarkson Road, Cambridge CB3 0EH (United Kingdom) Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Sarjapur Road, Koramangala, Bangalore 560 034 (India)
2. Department of Astronomy Astrophysics, Enrico Fermi Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637-1433 (United States) NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Center, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510-0500 (United States)

Cosmic rays with energies exceeding 10[sup 20] eV have been detected. The origin of these highest energy cosmic rays remains unknown. Established astrophysical acceleration mechanisms encounter severe difficulties in accelerating particles to these energies. Alternative scenarios where these particles are created by the decay of cosmic topological defects have been suggested in the literature. In this paper we study the possibility of producing the highest energy cosmic rays through a process that involves the formation of metastable magnetic monopole-antimonopole bound states and their subsequent collapse. The annihilation of the heavy monopole-antimonopole pairs constituting the monopolonia can produce energetic nucleons, [gamma] rays, and neutrinos whose expected flux we estimate and discuss in relation to experimental data so far available. The monopoles we consider are the ones that could be produced in the early Universe during a phase transition at the grand unification energy scale. We find that observable cosmic ray fluxes can be produced with monopole abundances compatible with present bounds.

• OSTI ID: 6474231
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Vol. 51:8; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COSMIC RAY FLUX
COSMIC RAY DETECTION
MAGNETIC MONOPOLES
ANNIHILATION
ACCELERATION
BOUND STATE
NEUTRINOS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
DETECTION
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
INTERACTIONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MONOPOLES
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
POSTULATED PARTICLES
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIATION FLUX
662440* - Properties of Other Particles Including Hypothetical Particles- (1992-)