Author(s)

Bingkai Zhang, Xiaoyun Zhao, Zhen Cao

Department of Physics, Fuyang Normal College, Fuyang, China.
Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

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 10¹⁸ eV, some even higher than 10²⁰ eV, and they may be the sources of UHECRs.

BL Lacertae Objects, TeV Blazars, UHECRs

Zhang, B. , Zhao, X. and Cao, Z. (2014) TeV Blazars as the Sources of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 4, 499-509. doi: 10.4236/ijaa.2014.43046.