Related papers: Interaction of escaping cosmic rays with molecular…
Recent international efforts have brought us closer to unveiling the century old mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Cosmic ray, gamma ray, and neutrino observatories are reaching the necessary sensitivity to study the highest energy…
More than 100 years after the discovery of cosmic rays and various experimental efforts, the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (E > 100 PeV) remains unclear. The understanding of production and propagation effects of these highest…
One century ago Viktor Hess carried out several balloon flights that led him to conclude that the penetrating radiation responsible for the discharge of electroscopes was of extraterrestrial origin. One century from the discovery of this…
Gamma-ray Astronomy studies cosmic accelerators through their electromagnetic radiation in the energy range between ~100 MeV and ~100 TeV. The present most sensitive observations in this energy band are performed, from space, by the Large…
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…
Cosmic rays of kinetic energies below ~1 GeV per nucleon are thought to play a key role in the chemistry and dynamics of the interstellar medium. They are also thought to be responsible for nucleosynthesis of the light elements Li, Be, and…
The propagation of cosmic rays in turbulent magnetic fields is a diffusive process driven by the scattering of the charged particles by random magnetic fluctuations. Such fields are usually highly intermittent, consisting of intense…
The universe is filled with a diffuse and isotropic extragalactic background of gamma-ray radiation, containing roughly equal energy flux per decade in photon energy between 3 MeV-100 GeV. The origin of this background is one of the…
Cosmic rays (CRs) propagate in the Milky Way and interact with the interstellar medium and magnetic fields. These interactions produce emissions that span the electromagnetic spectrum, and are an invaluable tool for understanding the…
We address the role of gamma-ray astronomy in the investigation of nonthermal processes in the large scale structure of the universe. Based on EGRET upper limits on nearby galaxy clusters (GCs) we constrain the acceleration efficiency of CR…
Cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular and diffuse clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal, and dynamical evolution. The amount of cosmic rays inside a cloud also determines the $\gamma$-ray flux produced by…
Gamma rays in the band from 30 MeV to 300 GeV, used in combination with direct measurements and with data from radio and X-ray bands, provide a powerful tool for studying the origin of Galactic cosmic rays. Gamma-ray Large Area Space…
Interactions of cosmic rays with the interstellar gas and radiation fields of the Milky Way provide the majority of the gamma rays observed by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. In addition to the gas which is densely concentrated along…
One way to understand the nonthermal history of the universe is by establishing the origins of the unresolved and truly diffuse extragalactic gamma rays. Dim blazars and radio/gamma galaxies certainly make an important contribution to the…
I give a synopsis of two aspects of the Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) acceleration problem: the importance of the medium energy gamma-ray window, and several specific astrophysical sources which merit further investigation.
Precise gamma-ray emissivities from cosmic-ray interactions with interstellar gas have been recently derived using Fermi-LAT data, and used to constrain the local interstellar spectra of protons and leptons. We report on a continuing effort…
It has been speculated earlier that Gamma Ray Bursts are sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. Recently, the search for high energy photons from Gamma Ray Bursts by Milagro group has put limits on the isotropic luminosity of these…
The origin of the extragalactic gamma-ray background is a pressing cosmological mystery. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has recently measured the intensity and spectrum of this background; both are substantially different from previous…
We address some current theoretical issues around ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We recall that scenarios producing more gamma-rays than cosmic rays up to high redshift can in general only provide a sub-dominant contribution to the…
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…