Recent results of the Pierre Auger (Auger) fluorescence detectors indicate an increasingly heavy composition of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs). Assuming that this trend continues up to the highest energies observed by the Auger surface detectors, we derive the constraints this places on the local source distribution of UHE CR nuclei. Utilizing an analytic description of UHE CR propagation, we derive the expected spectra and composition for a wide range of source emission spectra. We find that sources of intermediate-to-heavy nuclei are consistent with the observed spectra and composition data above the ankle. This consistency requires the presence of nearby sources within 60 Mpc and 80 Mpc for silicon and iron-only sources, respectively. The necessity of these local sources becomes even more compelling in the presence nano-Gauss local extragalactic magnetic fields.

• Received 11 July 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.105007