Related papers: Correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with…
The discoveries of the GZK cutoff with the HiRes and Auger Observatories and the discovery by Auger of clustering of >~60 EeV ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) towards nearby <~75 Mpc) AGNs along the supergalactic plane establishes the…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are powerful astronomical objects with very high luminosities. Theoretical arguments suggest that these objects are capable of accelerating particles to energies of 10$^{20}$ eV. In environments with matter or…
Interactions between cosmic ray protons and the photons of the cosmic microwave background radiation, as well as the expansion of the universe, cause cosmic rays to lose energy in a way that depends on the distance from the cosmic nray…
Recent analyses from the Pierre Auger Collaboration suggest correlations between the arrival directions of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) and catalogs of starburst galaxies (SGBs) and jetted active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We revisit…
Gamma-ray telescopes have reported some surprising observations of multi-TeV photons from distant active galactic nuclei (AGN), which show no significant attenuation due to pair production on either the extragalactic background light (EBL),…
Active galaxies and gamma ray bursts are the sources of the highest energy photons detected by astronomical telescopes. We speculate that they may be the sources of the highest energy cosmic rays. This makes them true proton accelerators,…
The origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with energies above E > 1017eV, is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the engines of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. This is a…
A new analysis of the dataset from the Pierre Auger Observatory provides evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays on an intermediate angular scale, which is indicative of excess arrivals from…
The long-held notion that the highest-energy cosmic rays are of distant extragalactic origin is challenged by observations that events above $\sim 10^{20}$ eV do not exhibit the expected high-energy cutoff from photopion production off the…
We analyze the existing evidence that BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) are sources of the highest-energy cosmic rays. We argue that three independent signatures observed in the real data -- (1) improvement of correlations with corrections of…
We calculate for the nearest active galactic nucleus (AGN), Centaurus A, the flux of high energy cosmic rays and of accompanying secondary photons and neutrinos expected from hadronic interactions in the source. We use as two basic models…
Historically cosmic rays have always been at the intersection of astrophysics with particle physics. This is still and especially true in current days where experimenters routinely observe atmospheric showers from particles whose energies…
Cosmic rays begin to reveal their secrets at energies above 5 EeV. Beyond this characteristic energy, known as the spectral "ankle", the arrival-direction data from the Pierre Auger Observatory show anisotropy on large angular scales of…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved questions in astrophysics. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely associated with the most energetic processes…
Very recently, the Pierre Auger Collaboration reported a $4.5\sigma$ correlation between the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays and nearby starburst galaxies. The cosmic rays producing the anisotropy signal have been…
Cosmic rays in the energy range $10^{18.0}$ - $10^{18.5}$ eV are thought to have a light, probably protonic, composition. To study their origin one can search for anisotropy in their arrival directions. Extragalactic cosmic rays should be…
Active Galactic Nuclei are considered as possible sites of cosmic ray acceleration and some of them have been observed as high energy gamma ray emitters (Blazars). There naturally comes an appealing idea that the acceleration of the highest…
Recent results obtained with the Pierre Auger Observatory are described. These include measurements of the spectrum, anisotropies and composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The ankle of the spectrum is measured at $4\times…
The origin of Galactic cosmic rays (with energies up to 10^15 eV) remains unclear, though it is widely believed that they originate in the shock waves of expanding supernova remnants. Currently the best way to investigate their acceleration…
Extragalactic cosmic ray populations are important diagnostic tools for tracking the distribution of energy in nuclei and for distinguishing between activity powered by star formation versus active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Here, we compare…