Related papers: Experimental Summary: Very High Energy Cosmic Rays…
This paper summarizes the status of very high-energy (VHE) astronomy, as of early 2003. It concentrates on observations made by gamma-ray telescopes operating at energies above 10 GeV. This field is an exciting one to be working in, with a…
Significant progress has been made over the past decades towards unveiling the sources of the most energetic particles in nature, the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Despite these advancements, the exact astrophysical sites capable…
The wealth of data collected in the last few years thanks to the Pierre Auger Observatory and recently to the Telescope Array made the problem of the origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays a genuinely experimental/observational one. The…
The construction of the southern site of the Pierre Auger Observatory is almost completed. Three independent measurements of the flux of the cosmic rays with energies larger than 1 EeV have been performed during the construction phase. The…
Cosmic rays provide an unique approach to study hadronic interactions at high energies in the kinematic forward direction. The KASCADE air shower experiment was the first to conduct quantitative tests of hadronic interactions with air…
The energy spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays above 10$^{18}$ eV is measured using the hybrid events collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory between November 2005 and September 2010. The large exposure of the Observatory allows the…
The energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays with ultra high energies based on the Yakutsk EAS Array data is presented. For the largest events values of S600 and axis coordinates have been obtained using revised lateral distribution function.…
The existence of cosmic ray particles up to the ultra-high energy limit (> 10^20 eV) is now beyond any doubt. The detection of cosmic particles with such energies imposes a challenge for the comprehension of their sources and nature. On one…
Very-high energy (VHE) gamma quanta contribute only a minuscule fraction - below one per million - to the flux of cosmic rays. Nevertheless, being neutral particles they are currently the best "messengers" of processes from the…
Cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere allow for the probing of fundamental interactions at ultra-high energies. We thus obtain limits on strongly coupled new physics models via their imprints on cosmic-ray air showers. Using the Monte…
Cosmic-rays with energies exceeding 10^{19} eV are referred to as Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). The sources of these particles and their acceleration mechanism are unknown, and for many years have been the issue of much debate.…
Experimental data obtained in cosmic ray investigations at energies above the knee are discussed. All features observed at these energies starting from the knee, changes of mass composition and concluding with various types of unusual…
We propose that the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum at energies E ~ 10^{15.5} eV is due to "new physics", namely to a channel in the high energy (~ TeV in the CM) proton interactions hitherto unaccounted for in estimating the energies of…
The Extreme Energy Events Project is a synchronous sparse array of 52 tracking detectors for studying High Energy Cosmic Rays (HECR) and Cosmic Rays-related phenomena. The observatory is also meant to address Long Distance Correlation (LDC)…
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…
Recently the Telescope Array collaboration reported an observation of cosmic ray event with very high energy 244 EeV ($2.44 \times 10^{20}$ eV). Importantly, the event is hard to correlate with the matter distribution in the local Universe,…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays are the most extreme energetic particles detected on Earth, however, their acceleration sites are still mysterious. We explore the contribution of low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts to the ultra-high energy cosmic…
This is a summary of a series of lectures on the current experimental and theoretical status of our understanding of origin and nature of cosmic radiation. Specific focus is put on ultra-high energy cosmic radiation above ~10^17 eV,…
There is a rich program of forward physics measurements within the CMS Collaboration covering a wide range of topics. In many cases there is a connection to quantities and effects relevant for very high energy cosmic ray interaction. Some…
The main goal of the present lectures is to outline the key particle interactions and energy loss mechanisms in the Galactic medium that high-energy particles are subject to. These interactions are an important ingredient entering the…