COSMIC RAYS ABOVE THE SECOND KNEE FROM CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES AND ASSOCIATED HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRINO EMISSION

Accretion and merger shocks in clusters of galaxies are potential accelerators of high-energy protons, which can give rise to high-energy neutrinos through pp interactions with the intracluster gas. We discuss the possibility that protons from cluster shocks make a significant contribution to the observed cosmic rays in the energy range between the second knee at similar to 10(17.5) eV and the ankle at similar to 10(18.5) eV. The accompanying cumulative neutrino background above similar to PeV may be detectable by upcoming neutrino telescopes such as IceCube or KM3NeT, providing a test of this scenario as well as a probe of cosmic-ray confinement properties in clusters.