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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…
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 origin of Galactic cosmic rays (with energies up to 10^15 eV) remains unclear, though it is widely believed that they originate in the shock waves of expanding supernova remnants. Currently the best way to investigate their acceleration…
Astrophysical flares are one of the possible prominent source classes of ultra-high-energy (UHE, $E > 10^{17}$ eV) cosmic rays, which can be detected by recording clusters of extensive air showers in arrays of detectors. The search for…
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…
The topological defect scenario of origin of the observed highest energy cosmic rays is reviewed. Under a variety of circumstances, topological defects formed in the early Universe can be sources of very massive particles in the Universe…
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…
Air showers, produced by the interaction of energetic cosmic rays with the atmosphere, are an excellent alternative to study particle physics at energies beyond any human-made particle accelerator. For that, it is necessary to identify…
Cosmic rays are relativistic particles that come to the Earth from outer space. Despite a great effort made in both experimental and theoretical research, their origin is still unknown. One of the main keys to understand their nature is the…
It is pointed out that the observed extremely high energy cosmic rays (EHECR) above $10^{11}$ GeV and the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU), both may have a common origin in baryon number violating decays of supermassive ``X''…
High-energy neutrinos present the ultimate signature for a cosmic ray accelerator. Galactic sources responsible for acceleration of cosmic ray up to the knee in cosmic ray spectrum will provide a guaranteed, albeit subdominant, contribution…
Possible existence of extragalactic ultra-high energy cosmic ray sources giving a very small particle flux on the Earth is considered. Accretion discs around supermassive black holes where particles are accelerated in electric fields are…
Propagation of ultra-high energy photons in the galactic and intergalactic space gives rise to cascades comprising thousands of photons. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the development of such cascades in the solar…
We study in detail the properties of clusters of ultra high energy cosmic ray events, looking in particular to their angular correlation function, to the relative frequency of clusters with different multiplicities (e.g. doublets vs.…
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…
Several of the models for origin of the highest energy cosmic rays also predict significant neutrino fluxes. A common factor of the models is that they must provide sufficient power to supply the observed energy in the extragalactic…
The riddle of the origin of Cosmic Rays is open since one century. Recently we got the experimental proof of hadronic acceleration in Supernovae Remnants, however new questions rised and no final answer has been provided so far. Gamma ray…
Massive stars blow powerful winds and eventually explode as supernovae. By doing so, they inject energy and momentum in the circumstellar medium, which is pushed away from the star and piles up to form a dense and expanding shell of gas.…
Extensive air showers still are our only access to the highest-energy particles in the universe, namely cosmic-ray nuclei with energies up to several 100 EeV. Studying open questions in cosmic-ray physics, like their yet unknown origin…
It is generally regarded that the bulk of cosmic rays originate in the Galaxy and that those below the 'knee' (the rapid steepening in the energy spectrum) at a few PeV come from Galactic supernovae, the particles being accelerated by the…