Active Galactic Nuclei with Starbursts: Sources for Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays

P. L. Biermann, J. K. Becker, L. Caramete, L. A. Gergely, I. C. Maris, A. Meli, V. de Souza, T. Stanev

Published 2009-04-09, updated 2009-04-10Version 2

Ultra high energy cosmic ray events presently show a spectrum, which we interpret here as galactic cosmic rays due to a starburst in the radio galaxy Cen A pushed up in energy by the shock of a relativistic jet. The knee feature and the particles with energy immediately higher in galactic cosmic rays then turn into the bulk of ultra high energy cosmic rays. This entails that all ultra high energy cosmic rays are heavy nuclei. This picture is viable if the majority of the observed ultra high energy events come from the radio galaxy Cen A, and are scattered by intergalactic magnetic fields across most of the sky.