Related papers: White Paper on Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
The field of high energy particle astronomy is exciting and rapidly developing. In the last few years, we have detected extragalactic sources of intense TeV gamma radiation and individual cosmic ray particles with energies exceeding 25…
We explore scenarios where the highest energy cosmic rays (HECR) are produced by new particle physics near the grand unification scale. Using detailed numerical simulations of extragalactic cosmic and gamma-ray propagation, we show the…
Active galaxies and gamma ray bursts are the sources of the highest energy photons detected by astronomical telescopes. We speculate that they may be the sources of the highest energy cosmic rays. This makes them true proton accelerators,…
Interfaces between high-energy physics, astrophysics and cosmology are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the important roles played by high-energy cosmic-ray physics. These include the understanding of atmospheric neutrinos, the search…
While several arguments can be proposed against the existence of particles with energy in excess of $(3-5)\times 10^{19}$ eV in the cosmic ray spectrum, these particles are actually observed and their origin seeks for an explanation. After…
Very high energy {\gamma}-rays are one of the most important messengers of the non-thermal Universe. The major motivation of very high energy {\gamma}-ray astronomy is to find sources of high energy cosmic rays. Several astrophysical…
The observation of neutrinos from cosmic accelerators will be revolutionary. High energy neutrinos are closely connected to ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and their sources. Cosmic ray sources are likely to produce neutrinos and the…
In this article we examine the hypothesis that the highest energy cosmic rays are complex nuclei from extragalactic sources. Under reasonable physical assumptions, we show that the nearby metally rich starburst galaxies (M82 and NGC 253)…
Large-scale accretion shocks around massive clusters of galaxies, generically expected in hierarchical scenarios of cosmological structure formation, are shown to be potential sources of the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) by…
Although cosmic rays were discovered 90 years ago, we do not know how and where they are accelerated. There is compelling evidence that the highest energy cosmic rays are extra-galactic -- they cannot be contained by our galaxy's magnetic…
The understanding of the nature of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is one of the most intriguing open questions for current and future observatories. These particles are expected to be accelerated in extragalactic sources. Because of their…
The search for the origin of cosmic rays is a quest of almost a hundred years. A recent theoretical proposal gives quantitative predictions, which can be tested with data. Specifically, it has been suggested, that all cosmic rays can be…
High-energy cosmic ray events present important challenges to particle astrophysics. Their nature and origin are often not well understood and, as they occur in an energy domain not accessible to particle accelerators, there is no clear…
Combined recent data from cosmic-ray detectors and gamma-ray detectors have produced some surprising insights regarding the sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), magnetic fields inside and outside the Milky Way, and the…
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 origin of Ultra--High Energy ($E \gsim 10^{20}$ eV) Cosmic Rays (UHECR) remains mysterious. I discuss ``top--down'' models, where UHECR originate from the decay of very massive, long--lived particles. I summarize the calculation of the…
This is a written version of a series of lectures aimed at graduate students in astrophysics/particle theory/particle experiment. In the first part, we explain the important progress made in recent years towards understanding the…
The origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays via annihilation of heavy stable, fermions "f", of the cosmological dark matter (DM) is studied. The particles in question are supposed to be created by the scalaron decays in $R^2$ modified…
Our knowledge of the high-energy universe is undergoing a period of rapid change as new astronomical detectors of high-energy radiation start to operate at their design sensitivities. Now is a boomtime for high-energy astrophysics, with new…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest energy messengers of the present universe, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV. Studies of astrophysical particles (nuclei, electrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed…