Probing grand unified theories with cosmic-ray, gamma-ray, and neutrino astrophysics

Abstract

We explore scenarios where the highest energy cosmic rays are produced by new particle physics near the grand unification scale. Using detailed numerical simulations of extragalactic nucleon, γ-ray, and neutrino propagation, we show the existence of an interesting parameter range for which such scenarios may explain part of the data and are consistent with all observational constraints. A combination of proposed observatories for ultra-high energy cosmic rays, neutrino telescopes of ≳few kilometer scale, and γ-ray astrophysics instruments, should be able to test these scenarios. In particular, for neutrino masses in the eV range, exclusive neutrino decay modes of superheavy particles can give rise to neutrino fluxes comparable to those predicted in models of active galactic nuclei.