Related papers: Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays and Hilbertian Repulsiv…
The origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs, $E>10^{18}$ eV) is still uncertain. However, great progress has been achieved due to the data taken by The Pierre Auger and Telescope Array observatories. The UHECR flux presents two…
We discuss the most recent developments in our understanding of the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays up to the highest energies. In particular we specialize our discussion to three issues: 1) developments in the theory of…
Cosmic ray events beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cut-off represent a great challenge for particle physics and cosmology. We show that the physics of heavy Majorana neutrinos, well defined by their masses, cross sections and lifetimes,…
One of the most striking astrophysical phenomena today is the existence of cosmic ray particles with energies in excess of 10^20 eV. While their presence has been confirmed by a number of experiments, it is not clear where and how these…
Cosmic rays have been observed up to energies $10^8$ times larger than those of the best particle accelerators. Studies of astrophysical particles (hadrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed energies have implications for…
Recent measurements of the spectrum and composition of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays suggest that their extragalactic sources may be accelerating heavy nuclei in addition to protons. This can suppress the cosmogenic neutrino flux relative to…
Based on general considerations rather than model-dependent fits to specific scenarios, we argue that an increase with energy of the positron fraction in cosmic rays, suggested by several experiments at E>~7 GeV, most likely requires a…
Bright gamma-ray flares observed from sources far beyond our Galaxy are best explained if enormous amounts of energy are liberated by black holes. The highest-energy particles in nature--the ultra-high energy cosmic rays--cannot be confined…
In this lecture I give an overview of shock acceleration, interactions of high energy cosmic rays with, and propagation through, the background radiation, and the resulting electron-photon cascade. I argue that while the origin of the…
The article gives a brief overview, aimed at nonspecialists, about the goals and selected recent results of the detection of very-high energy gamma-rays (energies above 100 GeV) with ground based detectors. The stress is on the physics…
The topological defect scenario of origin of the observed highest energy cosmic rays is reviewed. Under a variety of circumstances, topological defects formed in the early Universe can be sources of very massive particles in the Universe…
We review the physics of the highest energy cosmic rays. The discovery of their sources, still unknown, will reveal the most energetic astrophysical objects in the universe and could unveil new physics beyond the standard model of particle…
Cosmic rays at the Earth include a secondary component originating in collisions of primary particles with the diffuse interstellar gas. The secondary cosmic rays are relatively rare but carry important information on the Galactic…
A complete model for the origin of high-energy >~10^{14} eV) cosmic rays from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and implications of this hypothesis are described. Detection of high-energy neutrinos from GRBs provide an unambiguous test of the model.…
The detection of cosmic rays with energy around and in excess of $10^{20}$ eV raises many questions that future experiments will help answering to. I address here my view of some of these open issues, as they are now and as they might be…
We compute the ultra-high energy cosmic ray horizon, i.e. the distance up to which cosmic ray sources may significantly contribute to the fluxes above a certain threshold on the observed energies. We obtain results both for proton and heavy…
At the present moment, there is an unresolved problem in the physics of cosmic rays. The problem concerns the origin of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. One of the possible mechanisms of the particle's birth with such energy is bound to…
Homogeneous isotropic gravitating models are discussed in the framework of gauge approach to gravitation. Generalized cosmological Friedmann equations without specific solutions are deduced for models filled by scalar fields and usual…
We study the spectrum and anisotropies of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray transient sources, accounting for the effects of their propagation through the turbulent extragalactic magnetic fields. We consider either bursting sources or sources…
Within the framework of the minimum quadratic Poincare gauge theory of gravity in the Riemann-Cartan spacetime we study the influence of gravitational vacuum energy density (a cosmological constant) on the dynamics of various gravitating…