Title: An Original Mechanism for the Acceleration of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays,
Abstract: We suggest that ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) may be accelerated
in ultra-relativistic flows via a one-shot mechanism, the "espresso"
acceleration, in which already-energetic particles are generally boosted by a
factor of $\sim\Gamma^2$ in energy, where $\Gamma$ is the flow Lorentz factor.
More precisely, we consider blazar-like jets with $\Gamma\gtrsim 30$
propagating into a halo of "seed" CRs produced in supernova remnants, which can
accelerate UHECRs up to $10^{20}$\,eV. Such a re-acceleration process naturally
accounts for the chemical composition measured by the Pierre Auger
Collaboration, which resembles the one around and above the knee in the CR
spectrum, and is consistent with the distribution of potential sources in the
local universe, particularly intriguing is the coincidence of the powerful
blazar Mrk 421 with the hotspot reported by the Telescope Array Collaboration.