English

The highest energy cosmic rays from superheavy dark matter particles

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2025-01-30 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that high energy cosmic rays up to 101910^{19} eV can be produced in catastrophic astrophysical processes. However the source of a few observed events with higher energies remains mysterious. We propose that they may originate from decay or annihilation of ultra heavy particles of dark matter. Such particles naturally appear in some models of modified gravity related to Starobinsky inflation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.17321,
  title  = {The highest energy cosmic rays from superheavy dark matter particles},
  author = {E. V. Arbuzova},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.17321},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

12 pages, 1 figure. Invited talk at Mondello Workshop 2024 on "Frontier Research in Astrophysics - IV" (9 - 14 September 2024, Mondello, Palermo, Italy)