Related papers: Fermi Pulsars and the Cosmic Ray Knee
A consistent theory is developed of the volume energy oscillations of spherical nuclei due to sharpness of the Fermi distribution boundary for quasiparticles. The lowest value of the oscillating part of the energy corresponds to a magic…
The question of the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays at relativistic shock waves is discussed in the light of results of recent Monte Carlo studies of the first-order Fermi particle acceleration (Niemiec & Ostrowski 2006, Niemiec et…
In the common model supernova shock-acceleration of cosmic rays there are two open questions: 1. where does the high energy cosmic rays below the knee (10$^4-10^6$ Gev) come from, and 2. are cosmic ray accelerated only at their origin or…
I develop a theory to account for the cosmic ray spectrum. The essential assumption is that, due to fast convective motions, the free mean path perpendicular to the magnetic field is independent of energy and has the scale of the thickness…
The process of cosmic ray first-order Fermi acceleration at relativistic shock waves is studied with the method of Monte Carlo simulations. The simulations are based on numerical integration of particle equations of motion in a turbulent…
Contribution of nearby pulsars to the cosmic rays observed at Earth has been studied. It is found that the experimental bound on amplitude of cosmic ray anisotropy may produce significant constraint on the efficiency of converting pulsar…
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…
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…
An overview on the present observational status and phenomenological understanding of cosmic rays above 10^16 eV is given. Above these energies the cosmic ray flux is expected to be gradually dominated by an extra-galactic component. In…
The Galactic cosmic ray spectrum is a remarkably straight power law. Our current understanding is that the dominant sources that accelerate cosmic rays up to the knee ($3 \times 10^{15}$ eV) or perhaps even the ankle ($3 \times 10^{18}$…
A year after \emph{Fermi} was launched, the number of known gamma-ray pulsars has increased dramatically. For the first time, a sizable population of pulsars has been discovered in gamma-ray data alone. For the first time, millisecond…
The energy at which cosmic rays from extra-galactic sources begin to dominate over those from galactic sources is an important open question in astroparticle physics. A natural candidate is the energy at the 'ankle' in the approximately…
We study the survival of ultrahigh energy nuclei injected in clusters of galaxies, as well as their secondary neutrino and photon emissions, using a complete numerical propagation method and a realistic modeling of the magnetic, baryonic…
Nuclear Coulomb potential at completely ionized and extremely thin atmosphere can leaks to a macroscopic spatial scale. This effect is used to explain the difference between the energy spectra of cosmic-ray electrons around $1 TeV$ measured…
The coupling of photons with (ultra-) relativistic atomic nuclei is presented in two particular circumstances: very high electromagnetic fields and very short photon pulses. We consider a typical situation where the (bare) nuclei (fully…
The origin of cosmic rays at all energies is still uncertain. In this paper we present and explore an astrophysical scenario to produce cosmic rays with energy ranging from below $10^{15}$ o $3 \times 10^{20}$ eV. We show here that just our…
What is the meaning of the Fermi Paradox -- are we alone or is starfaring rare? Can general relativity be united with quantum mechanics? The searches for answers to these questions could intersect. It is known that an accelerator capable of…
Some general features of cosmic ray acceleration are summarized along with some inferences that can be drawn concerning the origin of the UHE component. The UHE luminosity density is found to be similar to that derived for GeV cosmic rays…
Most cosmic rays are thought to be accelerated by the shocks of supernova explosions of very massive stars. Here we review one quantitative proposal, which predicted the spectral slopes, bend and cutoff about the cosmic ray spectrum across…
The understanding of the particle spectra resulting from acceleration in relativistic shocks as they occur in extragalactic sources, is essential for the interpretation of the cosmic ray spectrum above the ankle ($E_p>3\cdot 10^{18}$ eV).…