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# New hadrons as ultra-high energy cosmic rays

## I Introduction

UHECRs with energies above $`10^{19}`$ eV have been observed in all relevant experiments, i.e. Volcano Ranch Volcano , Haverah Park Haverah , Fly’s Eye Fly , Yakutsk Yakutsk , AGASA agasa  and HiRes Hires . Their arrival directions are distributed uniformly over the sky without significant correlation with the galactic or the super-galactic plane. This isotropic distribution is consistent with the simplest model for UHE primaries, in which protons are accelerated in extragalactic, uniformly distributed astrophysical sources. However, UHE protons with energies above $`E>4\times 10^{19}`$ eV interact with cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons and lose quickly energy through pion production within 50 Mpc. As a consequence, a cutoff in the UHECR spectrum, predicted already in 1966 by Greisen, Zatsepin and Kuzmin (GZK) gzk , should show up for uniformly distributed sources at $`5\times 10^{19}`$ eV. This cutoff is not observed by the ground array experiment with the largest exposure, AGASA, while the first monocular results of the HiRes fluorescence telescope are in agreement with the GZK cutoff. The exposure at the highest energies of all other experiments is too small to allow for a definite conclusion about the presence or absence of the GZK cutoff.

Fortunately, the next generation experiment Pierre Auger Observatory auger  which is a combination of an array of charged particles detectors with several fluorescence telescopes is currently under construction. It will not only be able to resolve possible systematic differences between the ground array and fluorescence telescope techniques, but will also increase the statistics of UHECR data by an order of magnitude. The telescope array project, also based on the fluorescence technique, may serve as the optical component of the planned northern Pierre Auger site ta . There are also plans for space based observatories such as EUSO euso  and OWL owl  with even bigger acceptance.

Assuming that the GZK cutoff will be confirmed by future experiments does not resolve the UHECR puzzle. Since all experiments including HiRes see events with energies $`E>10^{20}`$ eV, their sources should be located within the distance $`R<50`$ Mpc. Otherwise, the GZK cutoff is extremely sharp and in contradiction even to the UHECR spectrum measured by HiRes (cf. Fig. 6). But there are not many astrophysical sources within this distance from the Earth known able to accelerate particles to the highest energies. Moreover, these sources are not located in the directions of observed events. Another problem is a statistically significant ($`4.6\sigma `$ for energies above $`4\times 10^{19}`$ eV) clustered component in the arrival directions of AGASA data AGASAcluster\_data ; AY\_cluster\_data ; AGASAcluster\_data2 ; cluster\_more . The sensitivity of the other experiments for clustering at the energies $`E>4\times 10^{19}`$ eV is much smaller, either because of the smaller exposure at the highest energies (Yakutsk) or because of a poor two-dimensional angular resolution (HiRes in monocular mode). At lower energies $`10^{19}\mathrm{eV}<E<4\times 10^{19}`$ eV a clustered component still exists in the AGASA data AGASAcluster\_data2 , but with a reduced significance of $`2.3\sigma `$. The Yakutsk experiment also observes a clustered component in the energy region $`E>2.3\times 10^{19}`$ eV with a chance probability $`2\times 10^3`$ or $`3\sigma `$ using Gaussian statistics AY\_cluster\_data .

The puzzle of the GZK cutoff can be solved in two different ways. The first one supposes that the sources of UHECR are located nearby. Then the extragalactic magnetic field should be strong enough, $`B>0.3\mu `$G, to deflect UHECR with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV and magnetic lensing could be responsible for the clustered component sigl\_and\_co . A problem of this solution is the difficulty to construct realistic maps of the matter and magnetic field distribution in the nearby Universe. Simulations done so far reproduced the energy spectrum and the clustered component assuming 10–100 sources, but without using realistic locations of the sources. Another difficulty is that magnetic lensing, although reproducing the clustered component, predicts in general a broad angular distribution of this component, while the data are within the experimental angular resolution. This solution is even more problematic if future experiments show the absence of the GZK cutoff: fixing the luminosity of the local sources to the UHECR flux above the GZK cutoff then results in a too large UHECR flux at lower energies, where sources from the whole Hubble volume contribute.

The second way is to suppose that the clustered component is due to a neutral particle which is not deflected by (extra-) galactic fields. In this case one can look for correlations of UHECR arrival directions with astrophysical objects. Tinyakov and Tkachev have recently found a significant (more than 4 $`\sigma `$) correlation with BL Lacs corr\_bllac . The BL Lacs which correlate with the UHECRs are located at very large (redshift $`z0.1`$) or unknown distances. If it can be shown with an increased data set of UHECRs that this correlations holds also at energies $`E>(610)\times 10^{19}`$ eV, then protons alone can not explain the UHECR data and a new component in the UHECR spectrum is needed.

The simplest possibility is that this new component is due to extremely high energy ($`E10^{23}`$ eV) photons emitted by distant sources. They can propagate several hundred Mpc constantly losing energy and thereby creating secondary photons also inside the GZK volume photons . However, this model requires extremely small extragalactic magnetic fields, $`B<10^{12}`$ G, and the minimal possible radio background. Besides, one needs to accelerate protons to $`E10^{24}`$ eV in order to create such photons. An acceleration mechanism to these extreme energies is not known.

Another possibility is that the events beyond the GZK cutoff are related to the $`Z`$ burst model zburst1 . In this model, UHE neutrinos interact with the relic neutrino background producing via the $`Z`$ resonance secondary protons and photons. The big drawback of this scenario is the need of an enormous flux of primary neutrinos that cannot be produced by astrophysical acceleration sources without overproducing the GeV photon background kkss . Also in this model, primary protons have to be accelerated to extremely high energies, $`E10^{23}`$ eV, in order to produce $`E=10^{22}`$ eV neutrinos.

Conventionally, acceleration mechanisms allow to accelerate protons in astrophysical sources only up to $`E<10^{21}`$ eV. If one considers this maximal energy as a serious upper limit, both possibilities discussed above are excluded and some kind of new particle physics beyond the standard model is required. The most radical option is violation of Lorentz invariance LV . A more conservative, though for same tastes still too speculative, possibility are decaying super-heavy relics from the early Universe SDM . This model cannot explain the correlation of UHECR arrival directions with BL Lacs, and could be excluded if these correlations are found also at energies $`E>(610)\times 10^{19}`$ eV. In theories with a fundamental scale of gravity as low as $`𝒪`$(TeV), the interactions of neutrinos with nucleons are enhanced compared to the standard model by the exchange of Kaluza-Klein gravitons shrock  or the production of black holes BH . In Refs. claim  it was claimed that neutrinos could have hadron-like cross sections at UHE and be responsible for the observed vertical air showers. However, unitarization slows down the growth of the neutrino-nucleon cross section MP ; GRW  and moreover, in the case of exchange of Kaluza-Klein gravitons, the energy transfer to the target nucleon is too small MP . Thus the neutrino-nucleon cross-section can be up to a factor 100 larger than in the standard model, but neutrinos in both cases still resemble deeply penetrating particles and cannot imitate air showers initiated by nucleons.

Another possibility is that new particles are directly produced in astrophysical sources. A model with an axion-like particle, i.e. a scalar which can mix with a photon in the presence of external magnetic fields, was suggested in Ref. axion . Axion-like particles can be also produced by photons emitted by astrophysical sources via axion-photon oscillations Csaki:2003ef . In supersymmetric (SUSY) theories with conservation of $`R`$ parity, the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is stable and can be a HE primary. This possibility was for the first time seriously discussed in connection with Cyg X-3 in the 80’s X3 ; BI86 . More recently, the production and interactions of both the neutralino and the gluino as LSP at UHE were examined in Ref. Be98 . The authors concluded that only a light gluino could be produced in reasonable amounts by astrophysical accelerators. Reference neutralino  calculated the neutralino production in proton-proton collisions and found that neutralinos produced in astrophysical sources cannot be an important UHE primary: Since the production cross section of neutralinos is too small, this model predicts either a negligible flux of UHE neutralinos or is not consistent with measurements of the diffuse gamma-ray background egret  and with existing limits on the neutrino flux at ultra-high energies. The latter limit were obtained by the Fly’s Eye Fly'sEye\_nu , AGASA agasa\_nu , RICE rice , and GLUE glue  experiments.

SUSY models with a strongly interacting particle as LSP or next-to-lightest SUSY particle (NLSP) are more interesting for UHECR physics. Hadrons containing a gluino were first suggested by Farrar as UHECR primary Fa96 ; farrar . Her model, a light gluino $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ together with a light photino such that the photino could serve as cold dark matter candidate, is excluded exp\_g1 ; exp\_g2 . Motivated by the correlation of UHECR with BL Lacs, the production of light $`\stackrel{~}{g}g`$ bound-states in astrophysical accelerators was suggested in Ref. Berezinsky:2001fy . However, the light gluino window seems to be now closed by Ref. Janot  also for generic models with a light gluino.

In this paper, we start from a model-independent, purely phenomenological point of view. Since the observed extensive air showers (EAS) are consistent with simulated EAS initiated by protons, any new primary proposed to solve the GZK puzzle has to produce EAS similar to those of protons. An experimentally still open possibility are photons as UHECR primaries: at 90% C.L., $`30\%`$ of the UHECR above $`E>10^{19}`$ eV can be photons photon\_limit . However, the simplest possibility consistent with air shower observations is to require that a new primary is strongly interacting. The requirements of efficient production in astrophysical accelerators as well as proton-like EAS in the atmosphere ask for a light hadron, $`<3`$ GeV, while shifting the GZK cutoff to higher energies results in a lower bound for its mass, $`>1.5`$ GeV Berezinsky:2001fy . From these requirements, we derive general conditions on the interactions of new UHE primaries.

As specific example, we investigate the case of a bottom squark containing hadron which we call “shadron” from now on. Our conclusions are however independent of the underlying particle physics model for the shadron. The required properties of the shadron will be parameterised as function of its mass, production and interaction cross-sections. Other suitable realizations of shadrons could be new (meta-) stable hadronic states like H-dibaryons H . Another candidate could be connected to the exotic, charged hadronic state with mass 2.3 GeV discovered recently by BaBar BaBar  which was suggested by the experiment as a four-quark state. If this suggestion would be true, then this four-quark state could be related to a new metastable neutral hadron.

We find that proton-proton collisions in astrophysical accelerator cannot produce high enough fluxes of new primaries without contradicting existing measurements of photon egret  and neutrino fluxes Fly'sEye\_nu ; agasa\_nu ; rice . By contrast, we find for a light shadron with mass $`<3`$ GeV and the astrophysically more realistic case of UHE proton collisions on optical/infrared background photons no contradiction with existing limits. Also, the required initial proton energy is not too extreme, $`E<10^{21}`$ eV, which is compatible with existing acceleration mechanisms. The only essential condition for the sources is that they should be optically thick for protons in order to produce these new hadrons. (This condition is similar for all models with new particles produced by protons). Below we will show that at least some of BL Lacs correlated with UHECR obey this condition.

One of the important features of the proposed model, and any model in which the production cross section $`\sigma _{p\gamma S}`$ of a new particle $`S`$ is much smaller than the total proton-photon cross section $`\sigma _{p\gamma }`$, is the high flux of secondary high-energy neutrinos. This neutrino flux is connected via the relation $`F_{\mathrm{CR}}\sigma _{p\gamma }/\sigma _{p\gamma S}`$ to the maximal contribution of $`S`$ particles to the cosmic ray flux, $`F_{\mathrm{CR}}1/E_{20}^2`$ eV/(cm2 s sr). It can be detected by future UHECR experiments like the Pierre Auger Observatory auger , the Telescope Array ta , EUSO euso  and OWL owl . Alternatively, such neutrino fluxes can be detected by triggering onto the radio pulses from neutrino-induced air showers radhep . Acoustic detection of neutrino induced interactions is also being considered acoustic . There are plans to construct telescopes to detect fluorescence/Čerenkov light from near-horizontal showers produced in mountain targets by neutrinos at intermediate energies fargion ; mount . Moreover, if the sources are optically thick for protons, the neutrino flux can be significant both at high energies and down to energies $`10^{1617}`$ eV, depending on the pion-production threshold on optical/infrared photons nu\_sources . Therefore, one may observe neutrinos from the same sources both by future UHECR experiments and by neutrino telescopes like AMANDA amanda , ICECUBE icecube , GVD GVD , ANTARES antares , NESTOR nestor  or NEMO NEMO .

The paper is organized as follows. We start with a discussion of the spectrum of UHECR protons produced by a small number of extragalactic astrophysical sources in Sec. II. Then we consider models containing light strongly interacting particles, shadrons, and their status. In Sec. IV we discuss the propagation of shadrons through the Universe. Their interactions in the atmosphere were investigated in detail before, so we shall just briefly recall the main characteristics in Sec. V. Section VI is devoted to a detailed analysis of shadron production in astrophysical sources. In Sec. VII we discuss all astrophysical constraints which shadrons have to obey to be viable UHECR primaries. In Sec. VIII, we discuss the particular case of BL Lacs as sources of UHECRs. Finally, we summarize our results in Section IX.

## II Protons from uniformly distributed sources

The HiRes experiment published recently their data from monocular observations Hires . They showed that the UHECR flux is consistent with the GZK cutoff expected for uniformly, continuously distributed sources. As a result, the simplest model of UHECR—protons accelerated in uniformly distributed, extragalactic sources—seems to be a convincing explanation of their data. The authors of Ref. BGG2002  found as fingerprints of the expected interactions of UHE protons with CMB photons a dip at $`E1\times 10^{19}`$ eV, a bump fingerprints  and the beginning of the cutoff in the measured spectra of four UHECR experiments. The agreement of the spectral shape calculated for protons with the measured spectra is excellent, apart from an excess in the AGASA data above $`E>8\times 10^{19}`$ eV. These findings point to an AGN origin of UHECR below $`E<10^{20}`$ eV and to protons as primaries. Despite the fact that the AGASA experiment sees a significant number of events above the GZK cutoff agasa , the model of proton primaries from extragalactic sources looks very attractive, because it does not require new physics.

The model of uniformly, continuously distributed sources is based on the assumption that the number of UHECR sources is so large that a significant fraction of sources is inside the GZK volume. However, as it was shown in a number of works Dubovsky2000 , AGASAcluster\_data2 , FK2000 , the small scale clustering of UHECR observed by AGASA allows to estimate the number of UHECR sources assuming that their distribution and luminosity is known. For the simplest model of uniformly distributed, similar sources their number is about several hundreds, 200 – 400. If we distribute these sources uniformly in the Universe, the number of sources in the GZK volume with $`R=50`$ Mpc would be of the order of $`10^3`$. This would mean that the nearest source should be at the redshift $`z=0.1`$.

A more conservative and self-consistent estimate uses the fact that protons with energies $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV observed on Earth can propagate at most from redshift $`z=0.2`$ (see, e.g., Fig. 2 in photons ). Distributing the sources within a sphere at $`z=0.2`$ around the Earth, the closest source is at the distance $`R=100`$ Mpc. Note also that in the particular case of BL Lacs as UHECR sources, which we discuss in Section VIII, the closest potential sources are at redshift $`z0.03`$.

We show now that the statement that UHECRs with $`E10^{20}`$ eV are protons from nearby sources is in contradiction to the total number of sources estimated including events below the GZK cutoff. Using Poisson statistics, the total number of sources $`S`$ is fixed by the number of observed singlets $`\overline{N}_1`$ and doublets $`\overline{N}_2`$,

$`\overline{N}_1`$ $``$ $`S\overline{n},`$ (1)
$`\overline{N}_2`$ $``$ $`S{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{n}^2}{2}},`$ (2)
where $`\overline{n}`$ is the average number of events from a given source and we assumed equal flux from all sources. From Eqs. (1) and (2) one obtains the number of sources

$$S\frac{\overline{N}_1^2}{2\overline{N}_2}.$$
(3)
As it was shown in Ref. Dubovsky2000 , the value Eq. (3) is a model independent lower bound on the number of sources for given values of $`\overline{N}_1`$ and $`\overline{N}_2`$. In the model of homogeneous distribution of sources with equal luminosity, the estimate for the number of sources becomes Dubovsky2000 ,

$$S\frac{\overline{N}_{\mathrm{tot}}^3}{\overline{N}_{\mathrm{cl}}^2},$$
(4)
where $`\overline{N}_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ is the total number of observed events and $`\overline{N}_{\mathrm{cl}}=2\overline{N}_2`$ is the number of events in clusters. In Eq. (4), it is assumed that $`\overline{N}_{\mathrm{tot}}\overline{N}_{\mathrm{cl}}`$. Note that therefore Eq. (4) gives always a larger number of sources than Eq. (3) because of the extra factor $`\overline{N}_{\mathrm{tot}}/\overline{N}_{\mathrm{cl}}1`$.

We estimate next the number of sources assuming that all UHECR with $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV are protons. Following Dubovsky2000 ; FK2000 , we use 14 events with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV and one doublet. Calculating $`S`$ with Eq. (3) gives $`S100`$ as a minimal number of sources, while the more realistic Eq. (4) gives $`S700`$. If we apply the same analysis to the AGASA data AGASAcluster\_data2  with $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV, we have $`\overline{N}_2=6`$ (we count for simplicity the triplet as one doublet) and $`\overline{N}_1=46`$. Then Eq. (3) gives $`S176`$, while Eq. (4) gives $`S1200`$.

Are these two estimates consistent with the idea that all UHECR are protons? To answer this question, we calculate the expected number of proton sources using $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV when there are $`S100700`$ sources in the GZK volume. Protons with $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV can reach us from $`z=0.2`$, or $`R_{\mathrm{tot}}1000`$ Mpc. Conservatively assuming that all events with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV come from within the GZK distance $`R=50`$ Mpc (in Dubovsky2000 ; FK2000  $`R=25`$ Mpc was used), we obtain with Eq. (3) as expected number of sources $`S_{\mathrm{tot}}=(R_{\mathrm{tot}}/R_{\mathrm{GZK}})^3\times 100=8\times 10^5`$. Using instead Eq. (4), the expected number of sources is $`S_{\mathrm{tot}}=5.6\times 10^6`$. These estimates should be compared to to the ones from AGASA clustering data, $`S_{\mathrm{AGASA}}176`$ or $`S_{\mathrm{AGASA}}1200`$, using Eq. (3) or Eq. (4) respectively. Since the Poisson probability to observe $`S_{\mathrm{AGASA}}`$ instead of $`S_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ events is practically zero, the chance probability to obtain these two event numbers is equal to the chance probability of clustering. We conclude therefore that the model in which all UHECR with $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV are protons from uniformly distributed point sources is inconsistent with the small scale clustering observed by AGASA.

One can argue that 14 UHECR events with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV is an optimistically high number and that the real number of such events is much smaller because the experiments estimate wrongly the energy of UHECR events.

We conservatively take only the four highest energy events from all experiments, including one Fly’s Eye event, two AGASA events and one HiRes event. In this case we have 4 single events and no doublets. We can estimate the number of sources from absolute minimal bound Eq. (3) if we assume that the average number of doublets is less then one, i.e. e.g. $`\overline{N}_2=0.5`$. Then there are $`S=16`$ sources in the GZK volume with $`R_{\mathrm{GZK}}=50`$ Mpc. Again, in a volume with $`R_{\mathrm{tot}}1000`$ Mpc there are $`S128.000`$ sources, in comparison with up to 1200 required by AGASA data above $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV.

Thus, if the clustered component in the AGASA events with energy $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV is due to point-like sources, the expected number of sources is of the order of several hundreds up to $`S1200`$, depending on the estimate used. These sources are distributed in a volume with $`R_{\mathrm{tot}}1000`$ Mpc. Assuming that the UHECR events with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV are protons requires $`10400`$ sources in the GZK volume with $`R_{\mathrm{GZK}}=50`$ Mpc. These two facts are in contradiction, if all UHECR are protons. In other words, if UHECR with $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV are protons, we should have less than one source, namely $`S<0.1`$, in the GZK volume.

Let us now discuss the consequences of a small number of sources for the model of uniformly, continuously distributed point sources of protons. For our calculations, we have used the code developed in Ref. code2 , in which all important effects (pion production, $`e^+e^{}`$ production and the expansion of the Universe) are taken into account. Essentially, we have repeated for the case of proton primaries and BL Lacs as sources the calculations made in photons  for photons in more details. In Figs. 1 and 2 we show with thin solid lines the spectrum of continuously distributed sources of protons with emission spectrum $`1/E^{2.7}`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{max}}=10^{21}`$eV as in Ref. BGG2002 . The dotted, thick solid and dashed lines are for the same model, but with no sources within 50 Mpc, $`z_{\mathrm{min}}=0.03`$ and $`z_{\mathrm{min}}=0.1`$ around the Earth, respectively. The minimum distance of $`z_{\mathrm{min}}=0.03`$ corresponds to the BL Lac distribution.

Let us concentrate on Fig. 1, which shows the measured spectrum of HiRes and where the fit model of BGG2002  with an infinite number of sources (thin solid line) works well. If there are no sources within 50 Mpc (dotted curve), the two highest HiRes data points are well above the model fit. For the BL Lac case where the closest known sources are at $`z_{\mathrm{min}}=0.03`$ two additional experimental points are away from the fit. Finally, for an uniform distribution of 400 proton sources over the Universe, or $`z_{\mathrm{min}}=0.1`$, the disagreement above the cutoff becomes even worse. Note that we are only concerned about energies above $`6\times 10^{19}`$ eV; at lower energies, the quality of the fitted model can be easily improved by a readjustment of the fit parameters. The same figure with experimental data from AGASA is shown in Fig. 2.

Thus, if the clustered component of the AGASA data for $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV (which has a statistical significance of $`4.6\sigma `$) is not a statistical fluctuation or the result of magnetic lensing, the expected relative small number of UHECR sources is inconsistent with the model of proton primaries emitted by uniformly continuously distributed sources both for the HiRes and AGASA data. This means that both the AGASA and HiRes data require the introduction of a new component (not protons) in the UHECR spectrum. In the following sections we will consider new light hadrons with the mass of 2–3 GeV as such a new component.

## III Light strongly interacting particles: models and experimental status

We shall concentrate our discussion on the definite case of the light sbottom, which is rather predictive and allows various tests of our assumptions. Since an useful UHE primary should be stable or quasi-stable with life-time $`\tau >1`$ month (cf. Sec. IV), only the LSP or the NLSP are possible candidates as new UHE messengers in SUSY models with (approximately) conserved R parity. The NLSP as UHE primary can be realized if it has a very small mass splitting with the LSP or if the LSP is the gravitino; in the latter case the gluino decays gravitationally and its lifetime can be long enough.

Theoretically the best motivated candidates for the LSP are the neutralino $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }`$ and the gravitino $`\stackrel{~}{G}_{3/2}`$. While in minimal supergravity models the LSP is the lightest neutralino (in some part of the parameter space it is the sneutrino), in models with gauge-mediated SUSY the LSP is normally the gravitino. Recently, a light bottom squark $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$ with mass $`m_{\stackrel{~}{b}}26`$ GeV has been suggested b , motivated by the large bottom quark production cross section measured at the Tevatron Tevatron : The long-standing puzzle of overproduction of $`b\overline{b}`$ pairs can be solved if there exists additionally to a light sbottom a light gluino with mass $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}1216`$ GeV.

Bottom squarks as LSP can either form charged $`\stackrel{~}{B}^{}=(\stackrel{~}{b}\overline{u})`$ or neutral $`\stackrel{~}{B}^0=(\stackrel{~}{\overline{b}}d)`$ (plus charged conjugated) two-quark states. Since $`qu`$ states are generally lighter than $`qd`$ states, it is likely that the charged $`\stackrel{~}{B}^\pm =(\stackrel{~}{b}u)`$ is lighter than the neutral $`\stackrel{~}{B}^0=(\stackrel{~}{b}d)`$. But their mass difference will be very small, e.g., for the usual $`B`$ system $`m_{B^0}m_{B^\pm }0.33\pm 0.28`$ MeV, and we consider therefore the question if the lightest state would be charged or neutral as open. Moreover, the mass difference in the $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ system could be smaller than the electron mass, and weak decays therefore kinematically forbidden. In this case, both the $`\stackrel{~}{B}^\pm `$ and the $`\stackrel{~}{B}^0`$ would be stable. Apart from the two-quark states, there will be again baryonic three-quark states, like e.g. $`\stackrel{~}{b}ud`$. These baryonic states can decay into a baryon and a $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ if kinematically possible.

Theoretically, the lightest hadronic state could be electrically charged. Is it possible that a light, stable charged hadron evaded detection? At Serpukov and the CERN ISR several searches for such particles were performed in the 70’s sep ; chlm ; br-scan . For example, the CHLM experiment excluded the range $`m2.4`$ GeV for stable hadrons with charge $`q=1`$ chlm . Below 2.4 GeV, the production of antideuteron could hide other hadrons with a similar mass. Since the ratio $`R`$ of antideuteron to pion production in these experiments is rather high, $`R5\times 10^4`$ br-scan , and the mass resolution of these experiments not too fine, a significant fraction of deuterons could be misidentified stable charged hadrons. Also the TRISTAN experiment did not include the deuteron region in their search for massive stable hadrons topaz . While the LEP experiments, in particular DELPHI, could exclude generally charged shadrons down to masses of 2 GeV, the limit is in the case of a sbottom with small couplings to the $`Z`$ boson weakened and sbottoms with masses below 5 GeV are allowed DELPHI . The ALEPH exclusion limit was not extended to masses below 5 GeV aleph . The CLEO experiment was able to exclude charged hadrons with mass $`m3.5`$ GeV, however only for fractionally charges cleo . Since there is however also no positive evidence for a stable charged hadron, we consider mainly the option that the lightest sbottom containing hadron is neutral.

Next we recall that a light sbottom quark is consistent with electroweak precision observable and with the LEP higgs mass limit Carena:2000ka . Reference Cho:2002mt  showed that this scenario implies a light stop, $`m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}<98`$ GeV, offering the TEVATRON run-II experiments the possibility to (dis-) prove indirectly the light sbottom case. The observation of a $`\overline{\stackrel{~}{b}}\stackrel{~}{b}`$ resonance in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation is difficult to extract from the background because the $`\overline{\stackrel{~}{b}}\stackrel{~}{b}`$ resonance has to be produced in a p-wave Nappi:1981ft . Its contribution to $`e^+e^{}`$ hadrons is small compared to the error of these measurements. Since the lightest $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ behave as a stable particle in any accelerator experiment, their identification would require a dedicated analysis. We consider therefore a sbottom with mass 1.5–3 GeV as a viable option and shall investigate its use as a UHE primary in the subsequent sections.

Finally, we discuss the case of rather short-lived shadrons. Possible decays are $`\stackrel{~}{b}b+\stackrel{~}{G}_{3/2}`$ in models where the gravitino is the LSP or decays like $`\stackrel{~}{G}\pi +\nu `$, etc., if $`R`$-parity is violated. In Ref. OV , it was argued that these decays can be excluded by proton decay experiments. If the life-time of $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ or $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$ is close to the required lower limit of $`1`$ month, the shadrons produced by cosmic rays and contained in the detector material have time to decay during the build-up and start phase of the experiment. Since these experiments are deep underground, they are well shielded and cosmic rays or shadrons cannot reach the detectors. In the case of detector using purified detector material, originally contained shadrons could be also extracted in the purification process, depending on the chemical properties of the shadrons.

Light sbottoms do not contradict cosmological limits: The relative abundance of gluinos is $`n_{\stackrel{~}{g}}/n_\gamma 10^{20}10^{17}(m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}/\mathrm{GeV})`$ Ba99  and possible decays do not disturb Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) cyburt . If baryon number also resides in baryons $`\stackrel{~}{N}`$ containing sbottoms, then their number is suppressed by $`n_{\stackrel{~}{N}}/n_B\mathrm{exp}(M_{\stackrel{~}{N}}/T_{\mathrm{QCD}})\mathrm{exp}(3/0.16)10^7`$, where $`T_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$ is the temperature of the QCD phase transition. Again there is no conflict with BBN.

We should stress that light sbottoms in SUSY theories serve as merely as examples. Any particle physics model which has a (quasi-) stable particle with mass 1.5–3 GeV and interacts strongly with protons should have similar consequences for the physics of UHECR.

## IV Propagation through the Universe: how to avoid GZK cutoff

Strongly interacting particles $`S`$ propagating through the Universe interact with CMB photons producing pions, if their energy is above the single pion production threshold,

$$E_{\mathrm{th}}=\frac{m_\pi ^2+2m_\pi M_S}{4ϵ_0}.$$
(5)
Here, $`m_\pi `$ and $`M_S`$ denotes the mass of a pion and of $`S`$, respectively. For the following simple estimates, we neglect the Bose-Einstein distribution of the photon energies and use just the average energy of a CMB photon, $`ϵ_0=\pi ^4T_0/30\zeta (3)6.4\times 10^4`$ eV. In order to avoid the GZK cutoff, the cross section of strongly interacting hadrons $`S`$ with photons should be smaller than the one of nucleons,

$$\sigma _{S\gamma }=B\left(\frac{m_p}{M_S}\right)^2\sigma _{p\gamma },$$
(6)
where the suppression factor in the resonant case comes from the different center mass momenta in the Breit-Wigner formula. The dimensionless parameter $`B`$ is $`B(s)<1`$, because the assumed resonant state (the equivalent of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance) has a mass larger than $`S`$.

Thus, strongly interacting UHE particles with $`EE_{\mathrm{th}}`$ will interact with CMB photons on the typical scale

$$l_{\mathrm{int}}=\frac{1}{\sigma _{S\gamma }n_0}=8\mathrm{Mpc}\frac{\sigma _{p\gamma }}{\sigma _{S\gamma }},$$
(7)
where the CMB number density is $`n_0=410`$ cm-3 and $`\sigma _{p\gamma }=10^{28}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ is the multi-pion production cross section. During each interaction, the particle $`S`$ loses the fraction $`y0.5`$ of its energy until its energy is close to $`E_{\mathrm{th}}`$. There, the energy fraction lost reduces to $`m_\pi /M_S`$, while the cross section can be increased due to resonances.

If one defines the radius $`R_{\mathrm{GZK}}`$ as the distance after which a particle $`S`$ with $`EE_{\mathrm{th}}`$ lost 95% of its initial energy, then

$$R_{\mathrm{GZK}}=\frac{\mathrm{ln}20}{y\sigma _{S\gamma }n_\gamma }48\frac{\sigma _{p\gamma }}{\sigma _{S\gamma }}\mathrm{Mpc}.$$
(8)
In the case of protons, this effect was first considered by Greisen, Zatsepin and Kuzmin in 1966 gzk  and is called GZK effect. The threshold energy for proton from Eq. (5) is $`E=1\times 10^{20}`$ eV. However, protons with energies $`E_{\mathrm{GZK}}=4\times 10^{19}`$ eV can still interact with the high-energy tail of the CMB distribution.

Let us now consider the case of a new, strongly interacting particle $`S`$ from a general point of view. If its heavier than a proton, then its GZK cutoff is both softened and shifted to higher energies. The first effect arises because of the smaller energy transfer near threshold, while the second one is due to a smaller resonant cross section with CMB photons. Let us now turn to our specific examples $`\stackrel{~}{G}=(\stackrel{~}{g}g)`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{B}^0=(\stackrel{~}{b}d)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{B}^\pm =(\stackrel{~}{b}u)`$. The first case was studied in Ref. Berezinsky:2001fy . It was found that $`\sigma _{\stackrel{~}{G}\gamma }`$ is at least a factor 8 smaller than $`\sigma _{p\gamma }`$, even for as low masses as $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}=1.5`$ GeV. This small cross section leads together with the reduced energy losses per scattering to a shift of the GZK cutoff close to the maximal energies of astrophysical accelerators Berezinsky:2001fy . While in the case of $`\stackrel{~}{G}`$ some information about the mass spectrum of low-lying $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ containing hadrons is available Chanowitz:1983ci , this information is missing for $`\stackrel{~}{B}^{0,\pm }`$. Since the knowledge of the low-lying resonances of $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ is essential to perform a detailed calculation of its energy losses on CMB photons, we can only estimate the energy losses. To be conservative, we assume that the resonant contribution to $`\stackrel{~}{B}\gamma `$ scattering is only suppressed by its larger mass, or $`B=1`$ in Eq. (6), and by the smaller energy transfer close to threshold, $`y=m_\pi /M_{\stackrel{~}{B}}`$. Using as smallest value for $`M_{\stackrel{~}{B}}2`$ GeV then shifts $`E_{\mathrm{th}}`$ by a factor two, what together with the other suppression factors causes only a mild GZK effect at high enough energies. The resulting spectrum is shown for $`\stackrel{~}{B}^0`$, an injection spectrum $`E^2`$ and uniformly distributed sources for a $`M_{\stackrel{~}{B}}=2`$ and 3 GeV in Fig. 3. In the case of the charged $`\stackrel{~}{B}^\pm `$, additionally $`e^+e^{}`$ pair production has to be considered. For comparison we show in Fig. 3 the proton spectrum from the same distribution of sources.

Another important condition is that the particle $`S`$ should be stable, traveling through the Universe. The lifetime $`t_S`$ should be bigger then

$$t_S=\frac{R_U}{c}\frac{M_S}{E_{\mathrm{UHE}}}12\mathrm{days}\frac{R_U(\mathrm{Gpc})M_S(\mathrm{GeV})}{E_{20}},$$
(9)
where $`R`$ is measured in Gpc, $`M_S`$ in GeV and $`E_{20}=E/(10^{20}\mathrm{eV})`$. Note that this allows the possibility that the gravitino is the LSP and the gluino or bottom squark is the NLSP. In this case, the NLSP decays only via gravitational interaction and thus has a long enough life-time to serve as UHECR messenger. On the other hand, all experimental constraints from searches for anomalous heavy isotopes can be avoided easily in this scenario.

Thus any new strongly interacting “messenger” particle with multi-GeV mass and lifetime bigger than a year can travel over cosmological distance and solve the GZK problem. In particular, gluino and bottom squark containing mesons and baryons can serve as as “messenger” particles.

## V Interactions in the atmosphere

The interactions of glueballinos with nucleons were considered in detail in Ref. Berezinsky:2001fy . There, the Monte Carlo simulation QGSJET QGSJET , which describes hadron-hadron interactions using the quark-gluon string model of the supercritical Pomeron in the framework of the Gribov-Regge approach, was extended to include light gluinos. Moreover, extensive air showers (EAS) were simulated and the resulting lateral and longitudinal shower profiles were compared to those of EAS initiated by protons. The authors of Ref. Berezinsky:2001fy  concluded that glueballinos with mass $`>5`$ GeV resemble a penetrating particle and can be already excluded using existing data, while EAS initiated by glueballinos with mass $`<3`$ GeV can be only differentiated from proton showers by future experiments with larger statistics.

The calculations of Ref. Berezinsky:2001fy  were done only for the special case of a glueballino. However, $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$-hadrons with the same mass should have very similar interaction properties. Main reason for this is that the coupling of the Pomeron to a hadron as well as the slope of its coupling depends essentially on the size of the hadron, and therefore on its reduced mass. Minor differences arise because of the different constituent masses of quarks and gluons resulting in different momentum distributions of gluino and squarks in different hadrons with the same mass. Otherwise, the soft and semi-hard interactions have the same dependence on its mass. Finally, the hard interactions of the constituents at UHE energies are practically mass independent in the low mass range of interest. We conclude therefore that also $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$-hadrons with mass $`<3`$ GeV produce EAS consistent with present observations.

## VI Production of SUSY particles in astrophysical sources

Protons are the most natural candidates for the observed UHECR with energies above the ankle $`E>10^{19}`$ eV. There are several mechanisms which could be responsible for the acceleration of protons to the highest energies: The most popular one is particle acceleration in shock fronts or Fermi acceleration of the first kind. However, there are other, more exotic mechanisms as, e.g., particle acceleration in the vicinity of black holes rotating in an external magnetic field (see for example neron ).

Independent of the specific acceleration mechanism, a simple estimate of the maximal possible energy up to which a source can accelerate particles was suggested by Hillas hillas . It is based on the relation $`E_{\mathrm{max}}=qBL`$, where $`q`$ is the charge of the accelerated particle, $`B`$ the magnetic field strength in the acceleration region and $`L`$ its size. Only few astrophysical objects are able to accelerate particles to UHE according to this simple criterion. Plausible candidates for acceleration to UHE are AGNs and several AGN subclasses were suggested as sources of UHECRs. The general perception is that it is possible to accelerate protons in objects like AGNs up to $`E_{\mathrm{max}}<10^{21}`$ eV, but that acceleration to higher energies is extremely difficult because of energy losses.

### VI.1 Proton-proton interactions

We start with the perturbative calculation of the production cross section of bottom squarks in proton-proton collisions. The main contribution to the total cross-section is given by the gluon-gluon subprocess, first calculated at leading order in old . The center-of-mass energy $`\sqrt{s}`$ of this process is rather high, $`\sqrt{s}>300`$ TeV, and we restrict ourselves therefore to a leading-order calculation. We have used the Cteq6 parton distribution functions (pdf) cteq6  with the scale $`\mu ^2=\widehat{s}`$ and calculated as main contribution to the total production cross section the parton subprocesses $`gg\stackrel{~}{g}\stackrel{~}{g}`$ and $`gg\stackrel{~}{b}\overline{\stackrel{~}{b}}`$. For the relatively large gluino masses still allowed, $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}>6`$ GeV, the cross section of $`gg\stackrel{~}{g}\stackrel{~}{g}`$ is too small and we do not discuss this case in the following.

The sbottom production cross section as function of the UHE proton energy $`E_p`$ in the lab frame is shown in Fig. 4a for masses $`M_{\stackrel{~}{b}}=3,4`$ and 5 GeV. At energies $`E_p10^{13}`$ GeV, this cross section reaches several mbarn. The fast increase of the cross section with energy is caused by the growing number of accessible soft gluons with smaller and smaller $`x_{\mathrm{min}}(s)`$ values. Therefore, the prize to be paid for such a large cross section is the small energy fraction transferred, $`y_{\mathrm{ls}}=E_{\stackrel{~}{b}}/E_p10^3`$ for $`E_p=10^{20}`$ eV, see Fig. 4b. Such small values of $`y`$ make it impossible to produce UHE sbottoms in pp-collisions: even if the primary protons would have energy $`E_p=10^{23}`$ eV, the average energy of the produced sbottom would be only $`10^{19}`$ eV. Since $`10^4`$ more energy will be dumped into neutrinos and photons than into sbottoms, it is impossible to explain the UHECR flux $`F_{CR}`$,

$$F_{CR}(E)=\left(\frac{10^{20}\mathrm{eV}}{E}\right)^2\frac{\mathrm{eV}}{\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}\mathrm{sr}},$$
(10)
with sbottoms without overproducing photons and neutrinos. The produced photons will cascade down to GeV energies and overshot the diffuse gamma-ray flux measured by EGRET egret  by two orders of magnitude. In principle, one can argue, that it is possible to transfer this energy already in the source to energies below those measured by EGRET energies, thereby avoiding the EGRET bound. However, at the same time the neutrino flux of the order of $`10^5`$ eV/(cm$`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{sr})`$ will overshut existing limits on neutrino flux, given by Fly’s Eye Fly'sEye\_nu , AGASA agasa\_nu  and RICE rice .

### VI.2 Proton-photon interactions

We consider next the perturbative calculation of the production cross section of bottom squarks in proton-photon collisions. Now, the most important subprocesses for squark production is the parton subprocess $`\gamma g\stackrel{~}{b}\overline{\stackrel{~}{b}}`$. The cross section for sbottom production is shown in Fig. 5a. Even compared to the relatively small total $`p\gamma `$ cross section which is of the order of $`0.1`$ mb this cross section is small. However, now the center-of-mass energy can be much smaller: the typical energy of an infrared/optical target photon is in the range 0.1-10 eV, hence $`\sqrt{s}`$ is between the production threshold and several 100 GeV. Therefore, the energy fraction transferred is now much higher, see Fig. 5b. However, the combination of these two suppression factors is again very small. Normalizing the UHE $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ or $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$ flux to the UHECR flux, Eq. (10), would produce $`10^6`$ times higher neutrino and photon fluxes, which is again in contradiction both with diffuse gamma-ray flux measurements and with neutrino bounds.

Apart from the perturbative contribution to the cross section calculated above, non-perturbative contributions have to be considered where at small momentum transfer hadrons interact with each other. A calculation of this kind could be performed in the vector dominance model. Then the total production cross section can be split into two parts,

$$\sigma _{p\gamma }^S\underset{i}{}\alpha w_i\sigma _{ip}+\frac{3\alpha e_q^2}{2\pi }_{k_{}^2>Q_0^2}\frac{dk_{}^2}{m_{\stackrel{~}{b}}^2+k_{}^2}\sigma _{\gamma qq}(s,k_{}^2)$$
(11)
where the sum $`i`$ extends over the vector mesons $`i`$ with weight $`w_i`$ and the second part describes the perturbative process $`\gamma \overline{\stackrel{~}{b}}\stackrel{~}{b}`$ matched to the first contribution at $`Q^2=Q_0^2`$ ralph . The second contribution can be evaluated at UHE and gives $`\sigma _{p\gamma }^S(m_\pi /m_{\stackrel{~}{b}})^2\sigma _{p\gamma }`$. The dominant subprocess of the first part is the $`t`$ channel exchange of $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ mesons. It is therefore natural to expect that this contribution is also suppressed relative to the photon-proton total cross-section in the multi-pion production region by the ratio $`m_\pi ^2/M_S^2`$. We shall parameterize therefore the bottom squark production cross section as

$$\sigma _{p\gamma }^S=A\frac{m_\pi ^2}{M_S^2}\sigma _{p\gamma },$$
(12)
where $`A(s)<1`$ is a dimensionless factor depending on $`s`$. We expect $`A(s)1`$ in the high-energy region and $`A(s)0`$ for $`s4m_{\stackrel{~}{b}}^2`$. The transferred energy can be as high as $`1050`$%. The required photon energies are of the order of $`0.110`$ eV.

Since we are interested in shadron masses around 1.5–3 GeV, we can compare the value predicted by Eq. (12) with the total charm production cross section in proton-photon collisions. Reference Berezhnoy:ji  collected experimental data photo-production-exp  in the energy range from $`\sqrt{s}=10`$–200 GeV; the cross section increases from $`10^3`$ mbarn at $`\sqrt{s}=20`$ GeV to $`10^2`$ mbarn at $`\sqrt{s}=200`$ GeV. According to (12), we would expect a cross section $`(m_\pi /M_D)^2\sigma _{p\gamma }5\times 10^3\sigma _{p\gamma }10^3`$ mbarn. Hence we conclude that Eq. (12) is a rather conservative estimate.

Close to threshold, $`t`$ channel exchange of $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ mesons proceed as $`p+\gamma (ud\stackrel{~}{b})+(\overline{\stackrel{~}{b}}u)`$ and $`p+\gamma (uu\stackrel{~}{b})+(\overline{\stackrel{~}{u}}d)`$. Thus at moderate UHE energies, the UHECR flux should consist of the usual protons, and positive and neutral $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$-hadrons. At the highest energies, when several $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$-hadrons are produced, additionally negatively charged $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$-hadrons appear.

Let us compare these numbers with the parameters of astrophysical objects. The important difference to proton-proton interactions is that the energy of background photons and as a result the center-of-mass energy is normally much smaller than the proton mass. The required center-of-mass energy to produce particles with mass in the multi-GeV range is around $`s=50\mathrm{GeV}^2s_{50}`$. It should be somewhat higher than the threshold $`4M^2`$ to avoid the kinematical suppression effects near threshold. The typical photon energy then is

$$ϵ=\frac{s}{2E_p}=0.25\frac{s_{50}}{E_{20}}\mathrm{eV}.$$
(13)
Photons of such energies exist in many astrophysical objects which can accelerate protons. However, the accelerated protons should interact inside these objects with photons. In other words, the propagation length $`l_{\mathrm{int}}`$ of protons should be smaller than the size $`R`$ of the interaction region,

$$l_{\mathrm{int}}=\frac{1}{\sigma _{p\gamma }n_\gamma }<R.$$
(14)
For example, the time variability of several days in the optical spectrum of AGN cores corresponds to a region size of $`R=10^{16}`$ cm opt\_var . The photon density can be estimated from the optical/infrared luminosity,

$$n_\gamma =\frac{L}{4\pi cR^2ϵ_\gamma }=10^{13}\frac{1}{\mathrm{cm}^3}\frac{L_{44}}{R_{16}^2ϵ_1},$$
(15)
where the quantities introduced are the dimensionless luminosity $`L_{44}=L/(10^{44}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s})`$, the region size $`R_{16}=R/(10^{16}`$ cm) and the typical photon energy $`ϵ_1=ϵ/(0.1`$ eV). Substituting the multi-pion production cross section $`\sigma _{p\gamma }10^{28}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and Eq. (15) into the condition (14) we obtain

$$\tau =\frac{R}{l_{\mathrm{int}}}=10\frac{L_{44}}{R_{16}ϵ_1}1.$$
(16)
Thus, if the parameters of the source are similar to those in Eq. (16), protons produced inside such sources will interact with background photons and can potentially produce secondary hadrons $`S`$. However, the produced hadrons still need to escape from the astrophysical source. The escape condition is inverse to the one given in Eq. (14): The optical depth for the new hadrons should be small assuming the same source parameters. Then the escape condition is

$$\sigma _{S\gamma }<\frac{1}{\tau _{p\gamma }}\sigma _{p\gamma },$$
(17)
where the optical depth for protons $`\tau _{p\gamma }`$ is defined by Eq. (16). In the case of a light glueballino, the suppression of the $`\sigma _{S\gamma }`$ cross section can be of the order of 0.1 in comparison to $`\sigma _{p\gamma }`$ at center mass energies of the order of 10 GeV Berezinsky:2001fy . This is consistent with Eq. (17), if the parameters of the astrophysical object are the same as in Eq. (16). In the case of a light bottom squark we suppose that 0.1 is also a reasonable estimate for the suppression factor in the $`\sigma _{S\gamma }`$ cross section and leave the detailed analysis for future investigation.

Thus, new light hadrons can be produced in astrophysical objects from $`10^{21}`$ eV protons, interacting with infrared/optical photons of the energies $`0.110`$ eV, if the sources are optically thick for protons, Eq. (16). The model for such a source can be similar, for example, to the one of Stecker et al. stecker . Produced hadrons will escape from the same objects if their interactions with photons are suppressed in comparison to those of protons, Eq. (17). However, simultaneously with the new hadrons large fluxes of neutrinos and photons will be produced unavoidably. In next section we will discuss the experimental constraints on these fluxes.

We have used AGN cores as a working example of astrophysical accelerators, which, as we have shown, can obey the condition of high optical depth for protons, Eq. (16), and allow shadrons to escape, Eq. (17). Any other astrophysical object, which is able to accelerate protons to the highest energies and obeys these conditions can be a source of shadrons as well.

## VII Allowed parameters of new hadrons consistent with gamma-ray and neutrino bounds

As it was shown in the previous section, only interactions of UHE protons with infrared/optical background photons of the energy $`0.110`$ eV can produce a significant amount of new strongly interacting hadrons $`S`$, without overproducing the diffuse photon and neutrino backgrounds. The essential condition for this mechanism is the high optical depth for protons, Eq. (16). However, this condition has not to be fulfilled by all UHE proton sources. Sources with small optical depth for protons will just emit UHE protons, which will be responsible for UHECR below the GZK cutoff. The few sources of UHE shadrons will be only responsible for the highest energy cosmic rays with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV and may be, partly, for the clustered component at lower energies. It is also not excluded that few sources of this kind will responsible for most, or all UHECR above $`4\times 10^{19}`$ eV.

We do not specify the proton acceleration mechanism in the astrophysical objects here. We just suppose that these sources can accelerate protons up to $`10^{21}`$ eV. The proton spectrum should be relatively hard in this case, $`1/E^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha 2`$. The exact shape of the spectrum is not important, because the optical depth for protons is high and most of them are absorbed. The pion production threshold for an optical background of 10 eV is $`E_{\mathrm{th}}=2\times 10^{16}`$ eV. Thus the flux of protons with energy above this threshold will be reduced by the factor $`\mathrm{exp}(\tau (E))`$. If the optical depth is high, $`\tau (E)1`$, all protons will be absorbed in the source, and the proton flux does not overshoot the measured spectrum of UHECRs.

We have used the propagation code code2  for the calculation of the energy spectra of secondary protons, photons and neutrinos. As initial spectrum, we have chosen a proton spectrum peaked at the energy $`10^{21}`$ eV, see Fig. 6. The continuation of this spectrum to lower energies is possible for any power law up to $`\alpha 2`$. Even an initial proton spectrum with $`1/E^2`$ will not contradict UHECR observations at high energies, but only will lead to a higher flux of UHE neutrinos at the energies $`10^{16}\mathrm{eV}E10^{20}`$ eV.

In Fig. 6 we present one example of such a calculation. Cosmic ray data from AGASA agasa  and HiRes Hires  are shown with errorbars. The contribution of the new hadrons $`S`$ to the UHECR spectrum at the highest energies is shown with a thick solid line. We have used conservatively the AGASA spectrum at the highest energies as normalization – choosing HiRes data as reference would increase the parameter space for the new hadron. The exact shape of the $`S`$ particle spectrum is not well defined, because it depends on many unknown parameters like the spectrum of background photons in the source, the distribution of the sources, initial proton spectrum and the energy dependence of the production cross section. However, the amplitude of this flux is related to the amplitude of the initial proton flux through Eq. (12). This fixes for any given mass $`M_S`$, parameter $`A`$ in Eq. (12) and average transfer energy $`y=E_S/E_p`$ the normalization of the initial proton flux, which is marked by $`p_{\mathrm{ini}}`$ in Fig. 6. The value of the initial proton flux shown in Fig. 6 corresponds for $`M_S=2`$ GeV to $`E_S/E_p0.1`$ and $`A1`$.

As background photons in the source we have used infrared/optical photons with energies $`0.1\mathrm{eV}ϵ10`$ eV and number density $`n_\gamma =5\times 10^{12}/\mathrm{cm}^3`$. This corresponds to the luminosity $`L=5\times 10^{43}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s}`$, if the radius of the emission region is $`R=10^{16}`$ cm. After several interactions with the background photons the accelerated protons lose all their energy and produce photons and neutrinos. The neutrino flux should obey the existing experimental limits of AGASA agasa\_nu , Fly’s Eye Fly'sEye\_nu , RICE rice  and GLUE glue , which are shown in Fig. 6. Photons cascade down to the GeV and sub-GeV region. The existing diffuse gamma-ray flux measurement by EGRET restricts the photon flux in the MeV–GeV region, see Fig. 6. However, if high magnetic fields exists in the source, then part of the photon energy can cascade down into the sub-MeV region, where the bounds on the diffuse photon background are at least a factor 10 times weaker than in the GeV region. Another part of the photon flux can produce large scale jets gamma\_jet , thereby again redistributing energy into the sub-MeV region. This uncertainty of the value of the photon flux makes the existing bounds on the neutrino flux much more important.

Protons escaping from the source at high energies will cascade down to energies below the GZK cutoff and can contribute to the observed UHECR spectrum, as shown in Fig. 6. We have supposed that there are no UHECR sources within $`R_{\mathrm{GZK}}=100`$ Mpc around the Earth. As a result, the proton spectrum has a sharp cutoff below $`10^{20}`$ eV, see Fig. 6. Thus, if no nearby UHECR sources exist, then even the HiRes data are inconsistent with the minimal model of protons coming from uniformly (but rare) distributed UHECR sources.

In Fig. 7, we show the UHE neutrino flux (per flavor) in our model for two extreme initial proton fluxes: protons with a spectrum peaked at $`E10^{21}`$ eV and for a $`1/E^2`$ spectrum up to $`E_{\mathrm{max}}10^{21}`$ eV. Both cases are consistent with present experimental limits. In the same figure, we show the sensitivities of future experiments to neutrino fluxes: the Auger project to electron/muon and tau-neutrinos auger\_nu , the telescope array (TA) ta\_nu , the fluorescence/Čerenkov detector MOUNT mount , and, indicated by squares, the space based OWL owl\_nu  (we take the latter as representative also for EUSO), the water-based Baikal (NT200+) baikal\_limit , ANTARES antares  (the NESTOR nestor  sensitivity would be similar to ANTARES according to Ref. nu\_tele ), the ice-based AMANDA-II with sensitivity similar to ANTARES and $`\mathrm{km}^3`$ ICECUBE icecube . We assume that the proposed water based $`\mathrm{km}^3`$ detectors like GVD GVD  and NEMO NEMO  will have sensitivities similar to the one of ICECUBE. As one can see in Fig. 7, future experiments will easily detect UHE neutrino flux in any model of new light hadrons. In these models, high neutrino fluxes as shown are unavoidable high—contrary to the case of neutrino produced by UHECR protons interacting with CMB photons. In the latter case, the neutrino flux can be as high as in Fig. 7, but could be also much lower, depending on the initial proton spectrum and the distribution of sources nu\_fluxes .

## VIII Discussion: BL Lacs as UHECR sources.

The results of the previous section do not depend on the particular type of astrophysical accelerator. However, we have normalized the astrophysical parameters to those of AGN cores by purpose. First of all, AGNs are one of the best candidates for proton acceleration to UHE. Second, a statistically significant correlation of UHECRs with BL Lacs, a subclass of blazars (AGNs with jets directed to us) with weak emission lines, was found corr\_bllac ; egret\_bllac . Motivated by this correlation, we discuss the particular case of BL Lacertae as sources of new hadrons in this section.

In Ref. corr\_bllac , it was shown that the correlation with BL Lacs requires a new, neutral component in the UHECR spectrum. Here we have suggested that this component is due to new, neutral shadrons. The trajectories of these shadrons should point towards their sources, apart from small deflections due to possible magnetic moments. As we have showed in the previous sections, shadrons are a good candidate for UHECRs and can be produced in AGN cores if the condition Eq. (16) is fulfilled. Now we address the question if the BL Lacs shown to correlate with UHECRs in corr\_bllac ; egret\_bllac  obey this condition.

As an example, we have checked this condition for BL Lac RX J10586+5628, which is located at redshift $`z=0.144`$ and correlated with AGASA doublet $`E=(7.76,5.35)\times 10^{19}`$ eV. First of all, let us note that protons with these energies can not reach us from the distance $`D=680`$ Mpc (we supposed the actual ’best fit’ cosmological model with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, $`H_0=70\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{sMpc}`$). The optical magnitude in the V-band of this object is $`15.8`$, which gives as optical luminosity $`L=6\times 10^{44}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s}`$. Since the spectra of BL Lacs are broad in the optical region (see, e.g., the spectrum of RX J10586+5628 in RXJ10586+5628 ), the density of 0.5 eV photons is high enough in a region of size $`R=10^{16}`$ cm to obey the condition Eq. (16) and thus to produce shadrons from accelerated protons.

If the UHECR primaries are new particles created in proton interactions in the source, large secondary neutrinos and photon fluxes are unavoidable. The neutrino fluxes are too small to be detectable by current experiments, but photons can cascade down into the MeV-GeV region in the source, and can be measured. Let us compare the UHECR flux of the BL Lac RX J10586+5628 with its gamma-ray flux in the MeV-GeV region, measured by EGRET. The two events observed by AGASA with energy $`E=(7.76,5.35)\times 10^{19}`$ eV allow us to estimate the integrated UHECR flux, $`𝑑EEF(E)0.05\mathrm{eV}/\mathrm{cm}^2/\mathrm{s}`$, while the integrated EGRET flux in the region 100–800 MeV is approximately $`𝑑EEF(E)10\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}^2/\mathrm{s}`$ egret\_sources . If we suppose that the EGRET flux is mostly due to proton energy losses, the ratio of fluxes is $`5\times 10^3`$ – a value consistent with our model. However, the comparison above can be considered only as an order of magnitude estimate: first, the flux measured by EGRET could be produced by other interactions. Second, the energy injected by protons into electromagnetic cascades in the core of RX J10586+5628 can be redistributed out of the line-of-sight and thus not contribute to the EGRET measurement. The next generation of TeV gamma-ray telescopes, like H.E.S.S. HESS , MAGIC MAGIC  and VERITAS VERITAS , will have sensitivities in the 10–100 GeV energy region, allowing to measure gamma-ray fluxes from distant sources similar to BL Lac RX J10586+5628. Such measurements can be complimentary to the observations of UHECR from the same objects and will allow to restrict or to confirm a wide class of UHECR models (including the one we considering here) which imply the production of secondary particles from protons.

The high optical depth of photons in Eq. (16) guarantees that protons lose energy in the interaction region and produce shadrons with a ratio of $`\sigma _S/\sigma _{p\gamma }5\times 10^3`$. For an optical depth of $`\tau =5`$, only the fraction $`e^5=6.7\times 10^3`$ of initial protons will escape from the source without interaction. Thus the flux of produced shadrons is in this case similar to the flux of escaping UHE protons. This example shows how the same source can be a source of UHE protons and at same time a source of new UHE hadrons. If the optical depth $`\tau `$ is smaller, the source will dominantly produce protons, if it is higher, it will mostly produce $`S`$-hadrons.

It will be interesting to check the UHECR data at lower energy, $`E(24)\times 10^{19}`$ eV, for correlations with RX J10586+5628. This would be the typical energy of protons from this object with $`z=0.144`$ taking into account energy losses on the way to the Earth. The comparison of the low energy proton flux with a possible UHE flux of new hadrons can be used to check the consistency of our model with the assumption that BL Lac are UHECR sources.

In Ref. corr\_protons , Tinyakov and Tkachev examined correlations of BL Lacs with the arrival directions of UHECR allowing for charges $`Q=1,0,+1`$ of the primaries. They showed that the deflection of charged particles in the galactic magnetic field can significantly increase the correlation with BL Lacs. If primaries can have charge $`Q=0,+1`$, they found that 19 from 57 AGASA events correlate with BL Lacs, which have magnitude $`m<18`$ in optics. The probability that this correlation is by chance is $`2\times 10^4`$.

They assumed that the charged particles are protons and the neutral ones photons. This interpretation has two important drawbacks: First, both the highest energy event with $`E=2\times 10^{20}`$ eV and charge $`Q=+1`$, and the event 16 of Table 1 in corr\_protons  with energy $`E=4.39\times 10^{19}`$ eV and charge $`Q=+1`$, which correlates with a BL Lac at $`z=0.212`$, can be only explained as background event. Second, they were forced to assume that most of the BL Lacs with unknown redshift are located nearby, $`z0.1`$.

Now, if we assume that the UHECR primaries correlated with BL Lacs are new light hadrons which can have charge $`Q=1,0,+1`$, for example $`\stackrel{~}{B}^{}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{B}^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{B}^+`$, then the assumptions above are not required. Shadrons with $`Q=+1`$ can easily come from high redshift sources up to $`z0.5`$ or even higher. Thus one does not need to assume that the BL Lacs with unknown redshift are located nearby nor exclude”unsuitable” sources from the Table 1 in corr\_protons . Note also that part of the events with $`Q=+1`$ can still be protons. Also let us remind that the deflection in the magnetic field in the ultra-relativistic case does not depends on particle mass and hadrons with $`M=23`$ GeV with charge $`Q=+1`$ will be deflected in the same way as protons.

Moreover, the model with light charged hadrons predicts also the existence of particles with negative charge. However, because these particles will be produced in the sources due to $`p^+\gamma `$ reactions, new particles with $`Q=+1`$ or $`Q=0`$ will dominate. Particles with $`Q=1`$ can be produced in such reactions only well above the production threshold and their expected number should be less than the number of particles with $`Q=+1`$ and $`Q=0`$. Moreover, UHE protons can increase the number of particles with $`Q=+1`$ at lower energies. Thus, a prediction of our model is the existence of a small number of negatively charged UHE cosmic rays, which average energy is larger than events with $`Q=+1`$ and $`Q=0`$.

It is impossible to check statistically the last statement with current data, however some hint can be found in Ref. egret\_bllac . The authors of this paper chose as subset of BL Lacs those which are simultaneously EGRET sources. They found that 14 BL Lacs correlate with 65 UHECR from AGASA and Yakutsk data, if they allow as charges $`Q=+1`$ and $`Q=0`$. The chance probability of this correlation is $`3\times 10^7`$ which is more than $`5\sigma `$ using Gaussian statistics. In this data set 8 BL Lacs out of 14 are UHECR sources and emit 13 UHECRs. If one suppose, that UHECR primaries with $`Q=1`$ also exist, two more UHECR will correlate with the same BL Lacs. These two events have energy $`E>5\times 10^{19}`$, which is much larger than the average energy in this data set. Three other UHECR primaries from this data set can have either $`Q=1`$ or $`Q=0`$. All of them also have large energies $`E>5\times 10^{19}`$.

One more assumption made by Tinyakov and Tkachev is a cut on the BL Lac magnitude in the optical range, $`m<18`$ corr\_bllac ; corr\_protons . They found that such a cut maximizes the correlation with BL Lacs. However, they were not able to explain why the correlated BL Lacs are those which are most bright in the optical range. In our model of new particle production, such a criterion is obvious: the optical background is high enough only in the most brightest BL Lacs. Hence, only they are able to produce shadrons in $`p\gamma `$ reactions. BL Lacs with lower optical luminosity produce protons, which lose energy and contribute to the UHECR spectrum at lower energies. Another interesting hint is the value $`m=18`$. In Fig. 3 of Ref. nu\_sources , the dependence of the source magnitude as function of redshift was shown under the condition that sources are optically thick for protons. This line crosses the value $`m=18`$ at redshifts of order $`z0.50.6`$. This distance is similar to the one which shadrons with $`M=23`$ GeV can still can propagate.

Thus, we conclude that the correlation of UHECR with BL Lacertae objects which was found in corr\_bllac  and investigated in detail in corr\_protons ; egret\_bllac  suggests that at least some, if not most UHECR primaries with $`E>4\times 10^{19}`$ should be new particles with $`Q=1,0,+1`$. Explanation of the BL Lacs correlation with $`Q=+1`$ particles by protons seems unlikely. The model of new light hadrons, for example $`\stackrel{~}{B}^{}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{B}^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{B}^+`$, naturally explains such correlation as well as the cut on the BL Lacs magnitude, $`m<18`$.

## IX Conclusions

The HiRes experiment published recently their UHECR data which show a cutoff at the highest energies as expected in the conservative model of an uniform, continuous distribution of astrophysical sources accelerating protons up to energies $`E<10^{21}`$ eV. On the other side, a clustered component in the arrival directions of UHECR with $`E>4\times 10^{19}`$ eV is present in the AGASA data with a statistical significance of $`4.6\sigma `$. If one assumes that this clustered component is due to point-like astrophysical sources, the predicted total number of sources of UHECR with $`E4\times 10^{19}`$ eV is of the order of $`4001200`$. In this paper we showed that this number of sources is so small that the model of continuously distributed protons sources is a bad approximation at the highest energies. The latter approximation requires $`10^{34}`$ times more sources than estimated from the clustering data. In other words, the closest proton source is located outside the GZK sphere $`R>50`$ Mpc and the energy spectrum of UHECR has a sharp exponential cutoff at the energy $`E<10^{20}`$ eV, which is inconsistent even with the HiRes data, see Fig. 1. Including the AGASA data makes this discrepancy even worse.

Moreover, a statistically significant correlation at the level of $`4\sigma `$ of the arrival directions of UHECR with BL Lac objects was found corr\_bllac . The closest BL Lacs with known redshift are located at cosmological distance, $`z=0.03`$, and protons with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV cannot reach us from these sources. Some events at lower energies also can not be protons, because the redshift of these sources is too high. For example, BL Lac RX J10586+5628 is located at $`z=0.144`$ or at the distance $`700`$ Mpc. Protons coming from this object can have a maximal energy around $`24\times 10^{19}`$ eV, while the correlated UHECRs have much higher energies, $`E=(7.76,5.35)\times 10^{19}`$ eV.

Our findings above suggest the existence of particles that can be produced at distant astrophysical objects like BL Lacs, propagate through the Universe without significant energy losses and produce air-showers in the Earth atmosphere similar to those of protons.

In this work we have investigated the possibility that such particles are new light hadrons. We have showed that such hadrons can be produced in astrophysical objects in interactions of accelerated protons with a background of optical photons, if the size of the interaction region is larger than the interaction length of protons. The interaction of the new hadrons with background photons should be suppressed to allow them to escape from the sources without significant energy losses. This fact as well as the requirement that the energy losses of the new particles propagating in the CMB are suppressed compared to protons restrict the new hadrons to be heavier than 1.5–2 GeV. Since the primary protons also produce also large neutrino and gamma-ray fluxes, which are bounded by experimental limits and measurement, only hadrons with masses below 3 GeV are allowed. The possibility to travel over cosmological distances without decay restrict the lifetime of these particles to be larger than one month.

As specific example we have considered hadrons containing light bottom squarks. This case agrees with all existing astrophysical observations, if the shadron mass is in the window $`1.5\mathrm{GeV}<M_S<3\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$. Such a new hadron can explain the observation of UHECR at the highest energies.

If BL Lacs are indeed UHECR sources, our model of new light hadrons allows to solve several puzzles connected with these objects. First, all correlated UHECR with zero charge can be our new hadrons with $`Q=0`$. Second, our model offers a simple explanation why only optically bright BL Lacs correlate with UHECRs: only if the density of optical photons in a BL Lac is high, the probability of protons to interact and to produce our new hadrons is large enough. Magnitude $`m=18`$ can correspond to the redshift $`z0.50.6`$, a distance from which our new particles can still reach the Earth without significant energy losses.

In Ref. corr\_protons  it was shown that the correlation with BL Lacs increases if one supposes that some UHECR have non-zero charge. In particular, a significant correlation was found if some UHECRs have a positive charge $`Q=+1`$. It was suggested that these positively charged particles are protons. However, this assumption forced the authors of Ref. corr\_protons  to assume that most of the BL Lacs with unknown redshift are located at the distances $`z<0.1`$. Furthermore, they had to assume that some of the UHECR which can not be protons are correlated just by chance.

These two assumptions can be relaxed in our model if one assumes that new hadrons with non-zero charge are also long-lived. However, the existence of such hadrons is disfavored from accelerator experiments.

An important consequence of our model is an unavoidable high UHE neutrino flux. This flux is well within the sensitivity region of all future UHECR experiments and can also be detected by $`\mathrm{km}^3`$ neutrino telescopes like ICECUBE (or GVD and NEMO). In the case of an initial proton spectrum $`1/E^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha 2`$ even 0.1 km3 neutrino telescopes like AMANDA II, ANTARES and NESTOR will be able to detect the diffuse neutrino flux in the $`10^{16}`$ eV energy region.

Another consequence of our model is a cutoff in the UHECR spectrum, which can be observed around $`E10^{21}`$ eV at future UHECR experiments like the Pierre Auger Observatory, the telescope array and EUSO.

New hadrons with 1.5–3 GeV mass can be searched for in existing accelerator experiments like CLEO and B-factories or with a dedicated experiment as proposed in Berezinsky:2001fy .

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank Oleg Kalashev for making changes in the code code2  which allowed us to produce the data for Figs. 6 and 7. We are grateful to Venya Berezinsky, Dmitry Gorbunov, Andrey Neronov, Sergey Ostapchenko, Sven Heinemeyer, Georg Raffelt, Peter Tinyakov, Igor Tkachev, and Sergey Troitsky for fruitful discussions and comments. M. A. T. thanks the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik for hospitality and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture for support through the grants AP200-1953 and BFM2002-00345. In Munich, this work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Emmy Noether program and the Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 375.