Related papers: Ultra high energy cosmic rays: A review
This white paper was submitted to the US Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey (Astro2020) and defines the science questions to be answered in the next decade in the field of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic-Rays. Following a review of the…
This review focuses on high-energy cosmic rays in the PeV energy range and above. Of particular interest is the knee of the spectrum around 3 PeV and the transition from cosmic rays of Galactic origin to particles from extra-galactic…
A brief review about the chemical composition of cosmic rays in the energy range 10^15 < E < 10^20 eV is given. While there is convincing evidence for an increasingly heavier composition above the knee, no clear picture has emerged at the…
We report a measurement of the flux of cosmic rays with unprecedented precision and statistics using the Pierre Auger Observatory. Based on fluorescence observations in coincidence with at least one surface detector we derive a spectrum for…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are particles, likely protons and/or nuclei, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV that are observed through the giant air showers they produce in the atmosphere. These particles carry the information on…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest energy messengers in the universe, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV. Studies of astrophysical particles (nuclei, electrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed energies…
Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) are charged particles of energies above $10^{18}$ eV that originate outside of the Galaxy. Because the flux of the UHECRs at Earth is very small, the only practical way of observing UHECRs is by…
The cosmic rays spectrum has been shown to extend well beyond 10^20 eV. With nearly 20 events observed in the last 40 years, it is now established that particles with energies near or above 10^21 eV. No nearby astrophysical object has been…
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 reported. For the first time, these large scale anisotropy searches are…
Recent advances in measuring and interpreting cosmic rays from the spectral ankle to the highest energies are briefly reviewed. A knee of heavy primaries and an ankle of light primaries have been observed at about 10^{17} eV. The light…
The origin of highest energy cosmic rays (UHECR) is yet unknown. In order to understand their propagation we determine the probability that an ultrahigh energy (above 5\cdot 10^{19} eV) proton created at a distance r with energy E arrives…
We have measured the cosmic ray spectrum at energies above $10^{17}$ eV using the two air fluorescence detectors of the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment operating in monocular mode. We describe the detector, PMT and atmospheric…
Contrary to expectations, several cosmic ray events with energies above $10^{20}$ eV have been observed. The flux of such events is well above the predicted Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff due to the pion production (via the $\Delta$…
From direct observations of the longitudinal development of ultra-high energy air showers performed with the Pierre Auger Observatory, upper limits of 3.8%, 2.4%, 3.5% and 11.7% (at 95% c.l.) are obtained on the fraction of cosmic-ray…
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…
Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) arrive at Earth from the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. They collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere with energies about ten times higher than any man-made accelerator,…
The article gives a brief overview, aimed at nonspecialists, about the goals and selected recent results of the detection of very-high energy gamma-rays (energies above 100 GeV) with ground based detectors. The stress is on the physics…
The possibility for a self-consistent description of all the basic features of the observed cosmic ray spectra and primary composition variations in the energy range of $10^{15}\div 10^{20}$ eV within the Galactic origin scenario is…
Cosmic ray particles with energies in excess of 10**(20) eV have been detected. The sources as well as the physical mechanism(s) responsible for endowing cosmic ray particles with such enormous energies are unknown. This report gives a…
The origin and nature of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with energies above $10^{20}\,$eV is a puzzle for the physics and astrophysics of cosmic rays which is still unresolved. In this paper, I report on an extensive study on the propagation…