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We explore the feasibility of estimating primary cosmic ray composition at high energies from the study of two parameters of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) at ground and underground level with Monte Carlo simulations using the new EPOS and…
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…
Measuring the angles of muons and electrons in air showers is proposed as a method for studying the primary cosmic-ray mass composition near the knee of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum at a few $10^{15}$ eV. Conventional tracking detectors…
The identification of primary photons or specifying stringent limits on the photon flux is of major importance for understanding the origin of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays. We present a new Monte Carlo program allowing detailed…
Radio antennas have become a standard tool for the detection of cosmic-ray air showers in the energy range above $10^{16}\,$eV. The radio signal of these air showers is generated mostly due to the deflection of electrons and positrons in…
Air-shower measurements in the primary energy range beyond 10 TeV can be used to address important questions of astroparticle and particle physics. The most prominent among these questions are the search for the origin of charged Galactic…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest detector for observation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) (above the energy of $10^{17}$ eV). It consists of a Fluorescence Detector (FD) and an array of particle detectors known…
The flux of hypothetical "hidden photons" from the Sun is computed under the assumption that they interact with normal matter only through kinetic mixing with the ordinary standard model photon. Requiring that the exotic luminosity is…
Measurements of the Elongation Rate of the depth of shower maximum above 1 EeV are reviewed. There is evidence, from four independent estimates of this rate, made in the two hemispheres using three different techniques, for a decrease in…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR), of energy >10 EeV, arrive at the Earth regularly, but their sources, acceleration mechanisms, details of propagation through the universe, and particle composition remain mysteries. In addition, their…
We give an overview and describe the rationale, methods, and testing of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Archival Legacy project "SKYSURF." SKYSURF uses HST's unique capability as an absolute photometer to measure the ~0.2-1.7 $\mu$m sky…
When ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) interact with ambient photon backgrounds, a flux of extremely-high-energy (EHE), so-called cosmogenic, neutrinos is produced. The observation of these neutrinos with IceCube can probe the nature…
Cosmic-ray protons with energies above $10^{16}$ eV passing near the Sun may interact with photons emitted by the Sun and be excited to a $\Delta^+$ resonance. When the $\Delta^+$ decays, it produces pions which further decay to muons and…
It is not yet clear whether the observed flux suppression for ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) at energies above \simeq 4.10E19 eV is a signature of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff or corresponds, for instance, to the maximum…
Measurements of cosmic ray electron+positron spectrum above 10 TeV with ground-based experiments is challenging because of the difficulty of rejection of hadronic extensive air shower background. We study the efficiency of rejection of the…
The energy and nuclear mass dependences of the total hadronic cross section in the energy range 0.5-2.6 GeV have been measured at Bonn using the SAPHIR tagged photon beam. The measurement, performed on C, Al, Cu, Sn and Pb, provides the…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest energy messengers of the present universe, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV. Studies of astrophysical particles (nuclei, electrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed…
Various phenomena of physics beyond that of the Standard Model could occur at high scale. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays are the only particles available to explore scales above a few dozens of TeV. Although these explorations are much more…
We present the first results from the HST Archival Legacy project "SKYSURF." As described in Windhorst et al. 2022, SKYSURF utilizes the large HST archive to study the diffuse UV, optical, and near-IR backgrounds and foregrounds in detail.…
In this article I review the main theoretical problems that are posed by the highest energy end of the observed cosmic ray spectrum, stressing the importance of establishing their composition in order to decide between proposed scenarios. I…