Related papers: Cosmic Rays above the Knee
Extragalactic cosmic ray protons with an injection spectrum of the type $E^{-2.7}$ show a spectrum on earth with a dip due to the Bethe-Heitler pair production against the photons of the cosmic microwave background. The dip is produced in…
We have carried out a detailed study to understand the observed energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays with energies up to ~10^18 eV. Our study shows that a single Galactic component with subsequent energy cut-offs in the individual…
The most energetic particles ever detected exceed $10^{20}$ eV in energy. Their existence represents at the same time a great challenge for particle physics and astrophysics, and a great promise of providing us for a probe of the validity…
The high energy spectrum of cosmic rays presents three distinct traits, the second knee, the ankle, and the GZK cutoff and as such, a thorough understanding of cosmic rays encompasses the study of these three features. It is in the second…
Cosmic rays represent one of the most important energy transformation processes of the universe. They bring information about the surrounding universe, our galaxy, and very probably also the extragalactic space, at least at the highest…
The search for a theory of the origin of cosmic rays that may be considered as a standard, agreeable model is still ongoing. On one hand, much circumstantial evidence exists of the fact that supernovae in our Galaxy play a crucial role in…
Understanding the transition from Galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays (CRs) is essential to make sense of the Local cosmic ray spectrum. Several models have been proposed to account for this transition in the 0.1 - 10 $\times 10^{18}$ eV…
The main results from the Auger Observatory are described. A steepening of the spectrum is observed at the highest energies, supporting the expectation that above $4\times 10^{19}$ eV the cosmic ray energies are significantly degraded by…
This is a summary of a series of lectures on the current experimental and theoretical status of our understanding of origin and nature of cosmic radiation. Specific focus is put on ultra-high energy cosmic radiation above ~10^17 eV,…
The greater part of this paper is concerned with a historical discussion of the development of the search for the origins of the highest-energy cosmic-rays together with a few remarks about future prospects. Additionally, in section 6, the…
The study of the transition between galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays can shed more light on the end of the Galactic cosmic rays spectrum and the beginning of the extragalactic one. Three models of transition are discussed: ankle, dip…
A brief review about the chemical composition of cosmic rays in the energy range 10^15 < E < 10^20 eV is given. While there is convincing evidence for an increasingly heavier composition above the knee, no clear picture has emerged at the…
Over the last decade a number of important observational results have been reported using data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. We shall review some of the recent key findings that have significantly advanced our understanding of…
Recent results of advanced experiments with sophisticated measurements of cosmic rays in the energy range of the so called knee at a few PeV indicate a distinct knee in the energy spectra of light primary cosmic rays and an increasing…
We perform a fit to measurements of the cosmic ray spectrum and of the depth of shower maximum in the energy range between $10^{15}$~eV and $10^{18}$~eV. We consider a Galactic component that is a mixture of five representative nuclear…
Existing small, medium and large arrays for the study of cosmic rays of ultra-high energies are aimed for obtaining information about our galaxy and extragalactic space, namely to search and study astronomical objects that produce the flux…
The amplitude and phase of the cosmic ray anisotropy are well established experimentally between 10^{11} eV and 10^{14} eV. The study of their evolution into the energy region 10^{14}-10^{16} eV can provide a significant tool for the…
The year 2007 has furnished us with outstanding results about the origin of the most energetic cosmic rays: a flux suppression as expected from the GZK-effect has been observed in the data of the HiRes and Auger experiments and correlations…
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…
We use a kinetic-equation approach to describe the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic ray protons and nuclei and calculate the expected spectra and mass composition at the Earth for different assumptions on the source injection spectra…