Related papers: Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Ray Observations
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are particles, likely protons and/or nuclei, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV that are observed through the giant air showers they produce in the atmosphere. These particles carry the information on…
Although cosmic rays were discovered over 100 years ago their origin remains uncertain. They have an energy spectrum that extends from 1 GeV to beyond 1020 eV, where the rate is less than 1 particle per km2 per century. Shortly after the…
An overview on the present observational status and phenomenological understanding of cosmic rays above 10^16 eV is given. Above these energies the cosmic ray flux is expected to be gradually dominated by an extra-galactic component. In…
Ultra-high energy cosmic ray experimental data are now of very good statistical significance even in the region of the expected GZK feature. The identification of their sources requires sophisticate analysis of their propagation in the…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the most energetic particles known - and yet their origin is still an open question. However, with the precision and accumulated statistics of the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array,…
In this review we discuss the important progress made in recent years towards understanding the experimental data on cosmic rays with energies $\agt 10^{19}$ eV. We begin with a brief survey of the available data, including a description of…
The sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are still unknown, but assuming standard physics, they are expected to lie within a few hundred megaparsecs from us. Indeed, over cosmological distances cosmic rays lose energy to interactions…
The hypothetical photonic origin of the most energetic air shower detected by the Fly's Eye experiment is discussed. The method used for the analysis is based on Monte Carlo simulations including the effect of precascading of ultra-high…
We discuss the basic difficulties in understanding the origin of the highest energy particles in the Universe - the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR). It is difficult to imagine the sources they are accelerated in. Because of the strong…
The highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic processes in the Universe. Their existence triggered a flurry of theoretical explanations ranging from…
The sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays are not yet known. However, the discovery of anisotropic cosmic rays above 57x10^18 eV by the Pierre Auger Observatory suggests that a direct source detection may soon be possible. The…
Recent results from the Pierre Auger Observatory show energy dependent chemical composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with a growing fraction of heavy elements at high energies. This points to a non-negligible contribution of…
The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is one of the most intriguing mysteries in astroparticle physics and high-energy physics. Since UHECRs with light mass compositions are less deflected by the Galactic and extragalactic…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is currently the largest observatory of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. Having more data collected than any previous experiment and using a hybrid technique, it can provide important information to unveil the…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, accelerated hadrons that can exceed energies of $10^{20}$ eV, are the highest-energy particles ever observed. While the sources producing UHECRs are still unknown, the Pierre Auger Observatory has detected a…
The Pierre Auger Observatory advances the study of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays through a hybrid system of surface and fluorescence detectors. This paper presents recent results, including refined spectrum measurements, anisotropy…
An anisotropy signal for the arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) of more than 99% confidence level was established using data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory. Cosmic rays with energy above $\sim 6 \times…
The detection of the GZK feature in the cosmic ray spectrum, resultingfrom the production of pions by ultra-high energy protons scattering off the cosmic microwave background (CMB), can shed light on the mysterious sources of these high…
In this paper we briefly discuss the problem of the origin of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays in the framework of Top-Down models. We show that, for high energy of decays and in a wide range of spectra of injected protons, their extragalactic…
Recent measurements of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos are briefly reviewed. With several new large scale observatories nearing completion or becoming fully operational only very recently, a large body of high quality and high…