Related papers: Giant AGN Flares and Cosmic Ray Bursts
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…
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…
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…
The little we do know of the physical conditions in gamma-ray bursters makes them conducive to the acceleration of high-energy cosmic rays, especially if they are at cosmological distances. We find that, with the observed statistics and…
The last decade has seen tremendous developments in gamma-ray astronomy with the extragalactic sky becoming highly populated by Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). This brief review highlights some of the progress in AGN research achieved over…
We develop the statistical methods for comparing two sets of arrival directions of cosmic rays in which the two-dimensional distribution of arrival directions is reduced to the one-dimensional distributions so that the standard…
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…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are known to show flux variability over all observable timescales and across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Over the past decade, a growing number of sources have been observed to show dramatic flux and…
The flux of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) at $E>10^{18.5}$ eV is believed to arise in plasma shock environments in extragalactic sources. In this paper, we present a systematic study of particle acceleration by relativistic shocks,…
Recent measurements by the Pierre Auger Observatory suggest that the composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) becomes dominated by heavy nuclei at high energies. However, until now there has been no astrophysical motivation for…
There is mounting evidence that long duration gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are produced by ultra-relativistic jets of ordinary matter which are ejected in core collapse supernova (SN) explosions. Such jets are extremely efficient cosmic ray (CR)…
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 origin of highest energy cosmic rays is yet unknown. An appealing possibility is the so-called Z-burst scenario, in which a large fraction of these cosmic rays are decay products of Z bosons produced in the scattering of ultrahigh…
Winds and outflows in starburst galaxies and AGN provide important information on the physics of the "central engine", the presence and evolution of (nuclear) starbursts, and the metal enrichment of the nuclear environment and the…
Some general features of cosmic ray acceleration are summarized along with some inferences that can be drawn concerning the origin of the UHE component. The UHE luminosity density is found to be similar to that derived for GeV cosmic rays…
In this chapter I give an overview of shock acceleration, including a discussion of the maximum energies possible and the shape of the spectrum near cut-off, interactions of high energy cosmic rays with, and propagation through, the…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are believed to be the source of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Particles are assumed to be accelerated in the accretion disk and the plasma jets, produced due to conservation of angular momentum, to…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved astrophysical questions. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic…
This paper presents a brief review of the current status of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray observations and discusses nearby starburst-like galaxies as their possible origin.
The rate of terrestrial irradiation events by galactic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is estimated using recent standard-energy results. We assume that GRBs accelerate high-energy cosmic rays, and present results of three-dimensional simulations…