Related papers: Experimental/Observational Summary - Very High Ene…
We report a calculation of the expected rate of inclined air showers induced by ultra high energy cosmic rays to be obtained by the Auger Southern Observatory assuming different mass compositions. We describe some features that can be used…
Cosmic ray astronomy attempts to identify and study the sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. It is unique in its reliance on charged particles as the information carriers. While no discrete source of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays has…
Results from the KASCADE air shower experiment investigating the origin of cosmic rays in the energy region from 10^13 to 10^17 eV are presented. Attention is drawn on the investigation of interactions in the atmosphere and the energy…
The arguments suggesting an association between the sources of cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are presented. Recent GRB and UHECR observations are shown to strengthen these…
One of the most challenging open questions regarding the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) deals with the shape of the source emission spectra. A commonly-used simplifying assumption is that the source spectra of the highest…
In this paper, prepared for the Physics in Collisions 2008 Conference, the most recent results on UHECRs from earth-based observatories are exposed and reviewed.
Investigations of the origin of cosmic rays are presented. Different methods are discussed: studies of cosmic gamma rays of energy from 30 MeV to about 10^15 eV (since photons point to their places of origin), studies of the mass…
The search for the origin of cosmic rays is as active as ever, mainly driven by new insights provided by recent pieces of observation. Much effort is being channelled in putting the so called supernova paradigm for the origin of galactic…
Cosmic rays with energies above $10^{18}$ eV are currently of considerable interest in astrophysics and are to be further studied in a number of projects which are either currently under construction or the subject of well-developed…
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…
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…
Since more than a century we investigate cosmic particles coming from the Universe with the aim of understanding their nature, their origin and how they are accelerated. So far, cosmic rays have provided many impressive results, giving…
The description of high-energy hadronic interactions plays an important role in the (astrophysical) interpretation of air shower data. The parameter space important for the development of air showers (energy and kinematical range) extends…
The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) remains an open questions in astrophysics. We explore two primary scenarios for the distribution of UHECR sources, assuming that their production rate follows either the cosmic…
Interpretation of the energy spectrum and arrival distribution of cosmic rays is complicated by lack of knowledge of the nature of the primaries. We review claims for the mass composition above 1017 eV where it can be determined only…
Ultra-high energy cosmic ray experimental data are now of very good statistical significance even in the region of the expected GZK feature. The identification of their sources requires sophisticate analysis of their propagation in the…
It is suggested that essentially all of the UHECRs we detect, including those at the highest energy, originate in our Galaxy. It is shown that even if the density of sources decreases with Galactic radius, then the anisotropy and…
Observations of cosmic rays have been improved at all energies, both in terms of higher statistics and reduced systematics. As a result, the all particle cosmic ray energy spectrum starts to exhibit more structures than could be seen…
Origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays is an unsolved problem. Several proposals such as Z-burst, decay of super massive matter, susy particles as a primary, neutrino as a primary in extra dimension models exist in the literature which try…
Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers probe particle physics at energies beyond the reach of accelerators. Here we introduce a new method to test hadronic interaction models without relying on the absolute energy calibration, and apply it…