Cosmic Rays Above the Second Knee from Clusters of Galaxies and Associated High-Energy Neutrino Emission

摘要

Accretion and merger shocks in clusters of galaxies are potentialaccelerators of high-energy protons, which can give rise to high-energyneutrinos through pp interactions with the intracluster gas. We discuss thepossibility that protons from cluster shocks make a significant contribution tothe observed cosmic rays in the energy range between the second knee around10^17.5 eV and the ankle around 10^18.5 eV. The accompanying cumulativeneutrino background above PeV may be detectable by upcoming neutrino telescopessuch as IceCube or KM3NeT, providing a test of this scenario as well as a probeof cosmic-ray confinement properties in clusters.