Related papers: A search for Extragalactic Sources of Ultrahigh-En…
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,…
Cosmic rays accelerated to ultra-high energies (E>4x10^19 eV) in electric fields in accretion discs around supermassive black holes are discussed. Particle injection spectra are assumed to be harder than those formed in acceleration on…
The Ultra-high energy cosmic ray energy spectrum summarized by the AGASA collaboration indicates clearly that the cosmic ray spectrum extends well beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cut-off at \sim 5 x 10^19 eV. Furthermore, despite…
Detecting neutrinos and photons is crucial to identifying the sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), especially for transient sources. We focus on ultrahigh-energy gamma-ray emission from transient sources such as gamma-ray…
Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays, EECRs -- cosmic rays with energies beyond the GZK cutoff (i.e. greater than 100 EeV) are scarce. Only a few of such events have been detected by air shower experiments and the nature of the primary particles are…
This paper presents the highlights from the recent measurements of the energy spectrum, mass composition, and arrival directions of the ultra-high energy ($> 10^{17}$ eV = 0.1 EeV) cosmic rays (UHECR) by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The…
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…
Cosmic rays are atomic nuclei arriving from outer space that reach the highest energies observed in nature. Clues to their origin come from studying the distribution of their arrival directions. Using $3 \times 10^4$ cosmic rays above $8…
We shortly discuss several astrophysical scenarios leading to cosmic ray acceleration up to extremely high energies reaching the scale of 10^{20} eV. The processes suggested in the literature include acceleration at relativistic jet…
Recent results from the Pierre Auger Observatory are presented, focusing on a measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above 10^18 eV, cosmic-ray composition, and the anisotropy in the cosmic ray arrival directions. The flux of cosmic…
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…
The undisputed galactic origin of cosmic rays at energies below the so-called knee implies an existence of a nonthemal population of galactic objects which effectively accelerate protons and nuclei to TeV-PeV energies. The distinct…
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…
The Auger Collaboration reports that the arrival directions of >60 EeV ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) cluster along the supergalactic plane and correlate with active galactic nuclei (AGN) within ~100 Mpc. The association of several…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) have been studied with the data of the Pierre Auger Observatory for more than fifteen years. An essential feature of the Observatory is its hybrid design: UHECRs are detected through the observation of…
We explore two generic hypotheses for tracing the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) in the Universe: star formation rate density or stellar mass density. For each scenario, we infer a set of constraints for the emission…
The current status of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) is reviewed, with emphasis given to theoretical interpretation of the observed events. The galactic and extragalactic origin, in case of astrophysical sources of UHE particles,…
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…
In this article a new method is proposed for estimating the mass composition of cosmic rays in individual events with energies above $1.25 \times 10^{19}$ eV. It is based on a joint analysis of experimental data and simulation results…
The lateral distribution of particles in extensive air showers from cosmic rays with energy above $10^{17}$ eV registered at the Yakutsk complex array was analyzed. Experimentally measured particle densities were compared to the predictions…