Related papers: Ultra high energy cosmic rays: A review
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…
The origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs, $E>10^{18}$ eV) is still uncertain. However, great progress has been achieved due to the data taken by The Pierre Auger and Telescope Array observatories. The UHECR flux presents two…
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…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays, UHECR, are charged particles with energies between $\sim10^{18}\,{\rm eV}$ and $\sim3\times10^{20}\,{\rm eV}\sim50\,{\rm J}$. They exhibit fundamental physics at energies inaccessible to terrestrial…
Energy-dependent patterns in the arrival directions of cosmic rays are searched for using data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. We investigate local regions around the highest-energy cosmic rays with $E \geq 6 \cdot 10^{19}$ eV by analyzing…
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…
The average mass composition of cosmic rays with primary energies between $10^{17}$eV and $10^{18}$eV has been studied using a hybrid detector consisting of the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) prototype and the MIA muon array.…
While there is some level of consensus on a Galactic origin of cosmic rays up to the knee ($E_{k}\sim 3\times 10^{15}$ eV) and on an extragalactic origin of cosmic rays with energy above $\sim 10^{19}$ eV, the debate on the genesis of…
A thorough search for large scale anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays detected above $10^{18}$ eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory is presented. This search is performed as a function of both declination and…
It is shown that the acceleration of particles by a powerful relativistic jet associated with the activity of a supermassive black hole in the Galactic center several million years ago may explain the observed cosmic ray spectrum at…
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…
Ultra high energy particles arrive at Earth constantly. They provide a beam at energies higher than any man-made accelerator, but at a very low rate. Two large experiments, the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array experiment,…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest operating detection system for the observation of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The detector allows detailed measurements of their energy spectrum, mass composition and arrival…
It is proposed that the highest energy $\sim 10^{20}$eV cosmic ray primaries are protons, decay products of a long-lived progenitor which has propagated from typically $\sim 100$Mpc. Such a scenario can occur in e.g. SU(15) grand…
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…
The sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays are not yet known. However, the discovery of anisotropic cosmic rays above 57x10^18 eV by the Pierre Auger Observatory suggests that a direct source detection may soon be possible. The…
Our knowledge of the mass composition of cosmic rays is deficient at all energies above 10^17. Here systematic differences between different measurements are discussed and, in particular, it is argued that there is no compelling evidence to…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are known to be mainly of extragalactic origin, and their propagation is limited by energy losses, so their arrival directions are expected to correlate with the large-scale structure of the local Universe. In…
A promising energy range to look for angular correlation between cosmic rays of extragalactic origin and their sources is at the highest energies, above few tens of EeV ($1\:{\rm EeV}\equiv 10^{18}\:$eV). Despite the flux of these particles…
Nature produces cosmic ray particles, probably protons, with energies well above $10^{20}$ eV -- how are they produced? Where do they come from? Gamma rays with energies above $10^{13}$ eV are produced in jets of active galaxies -- are…