Related papers: Experimental/Observational Summary - Very High Ene…
The origin, propagation, and mechanisms of acceleration of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are not yet well understood. Aiming for a better interpretation of the available experimental data, these data have to be confronted with…
The origin and nature of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are still unknown. However, great progress has been achieved in past years due to the observations performed by the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. Above…
We discuss that hadron-induced atmospheric air showers from ultra-high energy cosmic rays are sensitive to QCD interactions at very small momentum fractions x where nonlinear effects should become important. The leading partons from the…
Cosmic rays are energetic charged particles from extraterrestrial sources, with the highest energy events thought to come from extragalactic sources. Their arrival is infrequent, so detection requires instruments with large collecting…
The energy spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) provides essential information on the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. Beyond EeV energies, the Telescope Array and Pierre Auger Observatory have the largest exposures…
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…
Cosmic rays have been observed up to energies $10^8$ times larger than those of the best particle accelerators. Studies of astrophysical particles (hadrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed energies have implications for…
Large-scale accretion shocks around massive clusters of galaxies, generically expected in the cold dark matter scenario of cosmological structure formation, are shown to be plausible sources of the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays…
We present arguments aiming at reconciling apparently contradictory results concerning the chemical composition of cosmic rays of highest energy, coming recently from the Auger and HiRes collaborations. In particular, we argue that the…
Cosmic ray data may allow the determination of the proton-air cross section at ultra-high energy. For example, the distribution of the first interaction point in air showers reflects the particle production cross section. As it is not…
Recent measurements of the properties of cosmic rays above 10^17 eV are summarized and implications on our contemporary understanding of their origin are discussed. Cosmic rays with energies exceeding 10^20 eV have been measured, they are…
We shortly discuss several astrophysical scenarios leading to cosmic ray acceleration up to extremely high energies reaching the scale of 10^{20} eV. The processes suggested in the literature include acceleration at relativistic jet…
We revisit and extend the analysis supporting a 60 year-old suggestion that cosmic rays air showers resulting from primary particles with energies above 10^{18} eV should be straightforward to detect with radar ranging techniques, where the…
One of the models recently proposed to explain the origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays assumes that these particles may be accelerated by the electromotive force around presently inactive quasar remnants. We study predictions for…
We show that combining the published Pierre Auger Observatory measurements of the longitudinal_and_ lateral properties of UHE atmospheric showers, points to an unforeseen change in the nature of particle interactions at ultrahigh energy. A…
Ultra-high energy photons constitute one of the most important pieces of the astroparticle physics problems. Their observation may provide new insight on several phenomena such as supermassive particle annihilation or the GZK effect.…
The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is one of the most intriguing mysteries in astroparticle physics and high-energy physics. Since UHECRs with light mass compositions are less deflected by the Galactic and extragalactic…
We will review the main physical aspects of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. We will discuss in particular their propagation through astrophysical backgrounds, focusing on the latest experimental observations of HiRes, Telescope Array and…
We present a search for microwave emission from air showers induced by ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with the microwave detection of air showers experiment. No events were found, ruling out a wide range of power flux and coherence of the…
In this review we discuss the important progress made in recent years towards understanding the experimental data on cosmic rays with energies $\agt 10^{19}$ eV. We begin with a brief survey of the available data, including a description of…