Related papers: Cosmic Rays from the Ankle to the Cut-Off
While there is some level of consensus on a Galactic origin of cosmic rays up to the knee ($E_{k}\sim 3\times 10^{15}$ eV) and on an extragalactic origin of cosmic rays with energy above $\sim 10^{19}$ eV, the debate on the genesis of…
It has recently been suggested that ultra-high energy cosmic rays could have an extragalactic origin down to the "second knee" at ~4x10^{17}eV. In this case the "ankle" or "dip" at ~5x10^{18}eV would be due to pair production of…
Recent results from the Pierre Auger Observatory are presented, focusing on a measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above 10^18 eV, cosmic-ray composition, and the anisotropy in the cosmic ray arrival directions. The flux of cosmic…
The field of ultra-high energy cosmic rays made a lot of progresses last years with large area experiments such as the Pierre Auger Observatory, HiRes and the Telescope Array. A suppression of the cosmic ray flux at energies above…
The analysis of cosmic rays fluxes as a function of energy reveals a {\it knee} slightly below $10^{16}$ eV and an {\it ankle} close to $10^{19}$ eV. Their physical origins remain up to now quite enigmatic; in particular, no elementary…
We have argued [J. Szabelski et al. (2002)] that the well-known `ankle' in the cosmic ray energy spectrum, at logE (eV) ~ 18.7-19.0, marks the transition from mainly Galactic sources at lower energies to mainly extragalactic above.…
Recent work suggests that the cosmic ray spectrum may be dominated by Galactic sources up to ~10^{17.5} eV, and by an extra-Galactic component beyond, provided this latter cuts off below the transition energy. Here it is shown that this…
The maximum cosmic ray energy achievable by acceleration by a relativistic blast wave is derived. It is shown that forward shocks from long GRB in the interstellar medium are powerful enough to produce the Galactic cosmic-ray component up…
The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays represents one of the most conspicuous enigmas of modern astrophysics, in spite of gigantic experimental efforts in the past fifty years, and of active theoretical research. The past decade has…
We have developed a model that explains cosmic rays with energies E between \~0.3 PeV and the energy of the second knee at E_2 ~ 3*10^{17} eV as originating from a recent Galactic gamma-ray burst (GRB) that occurred ~1 Myr ago within 1 kpc…
We study the large-scale distribution of the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays observed by various experiments. Despite clearly insufficient statistics, we find a deficit of cosmic rays at energies higher than 10^{20} eV…
In this paper we briefly discuss the problem of the origin of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays in the framework of Top-Down models. We show that, for high energy of decays and in a wide range of spectra of injected protons, their extragalactic…
Recent progress suggests we are moving towards a quantitative understanding of the whole cosmic ray spectrum, and that many bumps due to different components and processes hide beneath a relatively smooth total flux between knee and ankle.…
The high energy spectrum of cosmic rays presents three distinct traits, the second knee, the ankle, and the GZK cutoff and as such, a thorough understanding of cosmic rays encompasses the study of these three features. It is in the second…
We consider the stochastic propagation of high-energy protons and nuclei in the cosmological microwave and infrared backgrounds, using revised photonuclear cross-sections and following primary and secondary nuclei in the full 2D nuclear…
Cosmic rays represent one of the most important energy transformation processes of the universe. They bring information about the surrounding universe, our galaxy, and very probably also the extragalactic space, at least at the highest…
The existence of cosmic rays of energies exceeding 10^20 eV is one of the mysteries of high energy astrophysics. The spectrum and the high energy to which it extends rule out almost all suggested source models. The challenges posed by…
The differential energy spectrum of the cosmic radiation from solar modulation energies up to 5x10**19 eV is correctly predicted by a recent theory of the knee and ankle which uses only one normalization point. This remarkable quantitative…
The differential intensity of cosmic radiation shows a sequence of depressions referred to as "knees" in a large energy band above 10^15 eV. The global depression entailed in the complete spectrum with respect to the extrapolated intensity…
Important observational results have been recently reported on the angular distributions of cosmic rays at all energies, calling into question the perception of cosmic rays a decade ago. These results together with their in-progress…