TITLE:
TeV Blazars as the Sources of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays
AUTHORS:
Bingkai Zhang, Xiaoyun Zhao, Zhen Cao
KEYWORDS:
BL Lacertae Objects, TeV Blazars, UHECRs
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
Vol.4 No.3,
September
5,
2014
ABSTRACT: The origin of ultra high
energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is still an open question in astroparticle physics.
TeV blazars are a small group of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). They all have
been observed in TeV gamma ray band, and show violent variabilities in flux at
all wavelengths. So it is believed that they have abilities to produce UHECRs.
To judge whether the TeV blazars can be the candidates of the origin of UHECRs,
we collect the information of emission region of 38 TeV blazars, and estimate
the maximum energy that the charged particle can be accelerated there. The
results show that TeV blazars have abilities to accelerate cosmic rays to the
energy above 1018eV,
some even higher than 1020eV,
and they may be the sources of UHECRs.