Related papers: Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays
The highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic processes in the Universe. Their existence triggered a flurry of theoretical explanations ranging from…
The Pierre Auger Observatory aims to determine the nature and origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR). The Auger hybrid detector combines fluorescence observations of extended air showers, initiated in the atmosphere by these…
The origin of the particles in the highest energy end of the cosmic ray spectrum is discussed in the context of the wider problem of the origin of the whole cosmic radiation as observed at the Earth. In particular we focus our attention on…
We discuss the most recent developments in our understanding of the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays up to the highest energies. In particular we specialize our discussion to three issues: 1) developments in the theory of…
The determination of the mass composition of the highest energy cosmic rays is one of the greatest challenges in cosmic ray experiments. The highest energy cosmic rays are only detected indirectly because of their very low flux. Using the…
We report a measurement of the flux of cosmic rays with unprecedented precision and statistics using data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. Based on fluorescence observations in coincidence with at least one station of the surface detector…
We briefly discuss three aspects related to the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) namely: 1) particle acceleration in astrophysical sources; 2) transition to an extragalactic origin; 3) spectrum and anisotropies at the…
Studies of the cosmic ray energy spectrum at the highest energies with the Pierre Auger Observatory.
The Global Cosmic-ray Observatory (GCOS) is a proposed large-scale observatory for studying ultra-high-energy cosmic particles, including ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), photons, and neutrinos. Its primary goal is to characterise…
Almost three decades ago, the Fly's Eye experiment recorded the most energetic cosmic-ray ever observed. With an energy of 320 EeV, this event is well beyond the suppression region of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) spectrum.…
The conjecture that ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are actually strangelets is discussed. Besides the reason that strangelets can do as cosmic rays beyond the GZK-cutoff, another argument to support the conjecture is addressed in…
I discuss recent advances being made in the physics and astrophysics of cosmic rays and cosmic gamma-rays at the highest observed energies as well as the related physics and astrophysics of very high energy cosmic neutrinos. I also discuss…
Ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) pose a problem either for particle physics or for astrophysics (or for both) by the unexpectedly high number of cosmic ray showers observed with energy above about 5x10^{19}eV, the…
We compute the ultra-high energy cosmic ray horizon, i.e. the distance up to which cosmic ray sources may significantly contribute to the fluxes above a certain threshold on the observed energies. We obtain results both for proton and heavy…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the most energetic particles ever detected. Cosmic rays that achieve the highest energies are rare, and their flux at Earth is extremely low. As a result, next-generation experiments with large…
It is commonly accepted that high energy cosmic rays up to $10^{19}$ eV can be produced in catastrophic astrophysical processes. However the source of a few observed events with higher energies remains mysterious. We propose that they may…
After a brief review of galactic cosmic rays in the GeV to TeV energy range, we describe some current problems of interest for particles of very high energy. Particularly interesting are two features of the spectrum, the `knee' above…
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…
After the Pierre Auger Observatory, it is likely that space-based experiments might be required for next-generation studies of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Particles. An overview of this challenging task is presented, emphasizing the main…
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…