Highest-energy cosmic rays from Fermi-degenerate relic neutrinos consistent with Super-Kamiokande results

Abstract

Relic neutrinos with mass 0.07 (+0.02/-0.04) eV, in the range consistent with Super-Kamiokande data, can explain the cosmic rays with energies in excess of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff. The spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays produced in this fashion has some distinctive features that may help identify their origin. Our mechanism does not require but is consistent with a neutrino density high enough to be a new kind of hot dark matter.

Comments: 3 pages, revtex; final version (minor changes in wording and references)