Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from black hole jets of radio galaxies

The Auger Collaboration reports (Auger Collaboration 2007 Science 318 939, The Pierre Auger Collaboration 2008 Astropart. Phys. 29 188) that the arrival directions of >∼60EeV ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) cluster along the supergalactic plane and correlate with active galactic nuclei (AGN) within ≈ 100Mpc. The association of several events with the nearby radio galaxy Centauras A supports the paradigm that UHECRs are powered by supermassive black-hole engines and accelerated to ultra-high energies in the shocks formed by variable plasma winds in the inner jets of radio galaxies. The GZK horizon length of 75 EeV UHECR protons is ≈100 Mpc, so that the Auger results are consistent with an assumed proton composition of the UHECRs. In this scenario, the sources of UHECRs are FR II radio galaxies and FR I galaxies like Cen A with scattered radiation fields that enhance UHECR neutral-beam production. Radio galaxies with jets pointed away from us can still be observed as UHECR sources due to deflection of UHECRs by magnetic fields in the radio lobes of these galaxies. A broadband ∼ 1MeV-10 EeV radiation component in the spectra of blazar AGN is formed by UHECR-induced cascade radiation in the extragalactic background light. This emission is too faint to be seen from Cen A, but could be detected from more luminous blazars.