Related papers: Cosmic Rays from Pulsars and Magnetars
One of the possible sources of hadronic cosmic rays (CRs) are newborn pulsars. If this is indeed the case, they should feature diffusive gamma-ray halos produced by interactions of CRs with interstellar gas. In this paper we try to identify…
It was proposed that the central dense stellar cluster in the Galactic Center, containing the mass of $\sim$4 times larger than that of the central black hole, had been formed as a result of a merging of several massive globular clusters.…
The standard model of cosmic ray propagation has been very successful in explaining all kinds of the Galactic cosmic ray spectra. However, high precision measurement recently revealed the appreciable discrepancy between data and model…
The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the workings of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. Current observations show a spectrum consistent with an…
Ultra-high energy cosmic ray protons accelerated in astrophysical objects produce secondary electromagnetic cascades during propagation in the cosmic microwave and infrared backgrounds. We show that such cascades can contribute between ~1%…
One of the main purposes in $\gamma$-ray astronomy is linked to the origin of Galactic cosmic rays. Unlike cosmic rays, $\gamma$ rays can be used to probe their production sites in the Galaxy and to find which type of astrophysical sources…
Cosmic rays are often modeled as charged particles. This allows their non-ballistic propagation in magnetized structures to be captured. In certain situations, a neutral cosmic ray component can arise. For example, cosmic ray neutrons are…
Precision measurements of the positron component in the cosmic radiation provide important information about the propagation of cosmic rays and the nature of particle sources in our Galaxy. The satellite-borne experiment PAMELA has been…
Laboratory experiments to explore plasma conditions and stimulated particle acceleration can illuminate aspects of the cosmic particle acceleration process. Here we discuss the cosmic-ray candidate source object variety, and what has been…
Recent observations show that hypernovae may deposit some fraction of their kinetic energy in mildly relativistic ejecta. In the dissipation process of such ejecta in a stellar wind, cosmic ray protons can be accelerated up to $\sim…
Galactic cosmic-ray source compositions, (Z/H)GCRS from H to Pb and ~10^8 - 10^14 eV, differ from solar-local interstellar, (Z/H)SS or (Z/H)ISM by ~20-200x. Both are mostly just mixes of core collapse (CCSN) and thermonuclear (SN Ia)…
How and where cosmic rays are produced, and how they diffuse through various turbulent media, represent fundamental problems in astrophysics with far reaching implications, both in terms of our theoretical understanding of high-energy…
The hypothesis that the entire cosmic ray spectrum, from $\lesssim1\,{\rm GeV}$ to $\gtrsim100\,{\rm EeV}$ energy, can be accounted for by diffusive shock acceleration on increasingly large scales is critically examined. Specifically, it is…
The supernova explosion which deposited $^{60}$Fe isotopes on Earth 2-3 million years ago should have also produced cosmic rays which contribute to the locally observed cosmic ray flux. We show that the contribution of this "local source"…
The spectral shape of cosmic ray positrons and antiprotons has been accurately measured in the broad kinetic energy range 1-350 GeV. In the higher part of this range (E > 30 GeV) the e+ and pbar are both well described by power laws with…
We study the origin of the positron excess observed in the local cosmic-ray spectrum at high energies, and relate it to the cosmic rays and gamma-ray emission across the entire Galaxy. In particular, we explore the hypothesis of a single,…
We investigate whether ultra--high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) may be preferentially produced in massive galaxy clusters, by looking for correlations between UHECR directions and those of x-ray clusters. We find an excess-above-random of…
We compute the production of cosmic rays in the dynamical superbubble produced by a cluster of massive stars. Stellar winds, supernova remnants and turbulence are found to accelerate particles so efficiently that the nonlinear feedback of…
Rapidly-spinning magnetars can potentially form by the accretion induced collapse of a white dwarf or by neutron star mergers if the equation of state of nuclear density matter is such that two low mass neutron stars can sometimes form a…
Physicists have pondered the origin of cosmic rays for over a hundred years. However the last few years have seen an upsurge in the observation, progress in the theory and a genuine increase in the importance attached to the topic due to…