Related papers: Astrophysics: Most distant cosmic blast seen
In the past decade, our understanding of how stars and galaxies formed during the first 5 billion years after the Big Bang has been revolutionized by observations that leverage gravitational lensing by intervening masses, which act as…
Gamma-ray bursts are still not fully understood events. However, their exploration could provide a useful tool for a better understanding of the early Universe because they belong to the most distant and violent objects that astronomers…
The general features of the cosmic-ray spectrum have been known for a long time. Although the basic approaches to understanding cosmic-ray propagation and acceleration have also been well understood for many years, there are several…
The earliest generation of stars, far from being a mere novelty, transformed the universe from darkness to light. The first atoms to form after the Big Bang filled the universe with atomic hydrogen and a few light elements. As gravity…
Gamma-ray burst astronomy has undergone a revolution in the last three years, spurred by the discovery of fading long-wavelength counterparts. We now know that at least the long duration GRBs lie at cosmological distances with estimated…
A gamma-ray burst (GRB) releases an amount of energy similar to that of a supernova explosion, which combined with its rapid variability suggests an origin related to neutron stars or black holes. Since these compact stellar remnants form…
Direct techniques for cosmic ray observations have reached an unprecedented level of precision, unveiling fine-details of the energy spectra. I will introduce the evidence for new spectral features which has been accumulated by new…
Blazars and Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the fastest objects known so far. The radiation we see from these sources originates in a jet of similar aperture angle, and we think it is the result of the conversion of some of the jet kinetic…
Current observations are about to open up a direct window into the final frontier of cosmology: the first billion years in cosmic history when the first stars and galaxies formed. Even before the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, it…
Recent international efforts have brought us closer to unveiling the century old mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Cosmic ray, gamma ray, and neutrino observatories are reaching the necessary sensitivity to study the highest energy…
The nature of the dark matter in the Universe is one of the hardest unsolved problems in modern physics. Indeed, on one hand, the overwhelming indirect evidence from astrophysics seems to leave no doubt about its existence; on the other…
Gamma-Ray Bursts are the most energetic explosions in the Universe, and are among the most promising for detecting multiple non-electromagnetic signals, including cosmic rays, high energy neutrinos and gravitational waves. The multi-GeV to…
I review here some of the physics we are learning and expect to learn in the near future through the observation of cosmic rays. The study of cosmic rays involves a combination of data from accelerators, ground arrays, atmospheric…
A galaxy's orientation is one of its most basic observable properties. Astronomers once assumed that galaxies are randomly oriented in space, however it is now clear that some have preferred orientations with respect to their surroundings.…
We review the BeppoSAX discoveries and studies in the field of Gamma-Ray Bursts, which allowed a huge step forward in the understanding of these still mysterious and highly interesting astrophysical sources.
Historically cosmic rays have always been at the intersection of astrophysics with particle physics. This is still and especially true in current days where experimenters routinely observe atmospheric showers from particles whose energies…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are short, intense flashes of soft gamma-rays coming from the distant Universe. Long-duration GRBs (those lasting more than ~2 s) are believed to originate from the deaths of massive stars, mainly on the basis of a…
$\gamma$-ray bursts have baffled theorists ever since their accidental discovery at the sixties. We suggest that these bursts originate in merger of neutron star binaries, taking place at cosmological distances. These mergers release…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the brightest sources in the universe, emit mostly in the hard X-ray energy band and have been detected at redshifts up to ~8.1. Thus, they are in principle very powerful probes for cosmology. I shortly review…
A new phenomenon, recently studied in theoretical physics, may have considerable interest for astronomers: the explosive decay of old primordial black holes via quantum tunnelling. Models predict radio and gamma bursts with a characteristic…