Abstract
The high-frequency (submillimetre) side of the 'black-body' radiation spectrum has now become available for study from balloons and the soon-to-be-launched Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. There is recent evidence of an unexpectedly large excess of radiation beyond the peak of the black-body curve1, which seems to be generally isotropic2 and therefore of extragalac-tic extent. Such radiation will have a significant effect on the propagation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Because of the importance of this new discovery and the timeliness of the subject, I re-examine here the effect of extragalactic microwave and submil-limetre-radiation fields on the ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray spectrum. Although the most detailed work3, 4 so far is based on complex numerical simulations of individual interactions, I find that the general characteristics of the spectrum can be derived from fairly simple analytical arguments. I show that one can explore, by simpler and more general means, the various spectral features obtained by numerical calculations ('pile-up' bumps and 'dips'3,4). I illustrate this technique with a newly derived lifetime-energy relation, based on the new submillimetre observations.
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Stecker, F. Extragalactic radiation and the ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray spectrum. Nature 342, 401–403 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/342401a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/342401a0
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