Related papers: Cosmic Ray Acceleration by Relativistic Shocks: Li…
Accretion flows onto supergalactic-scale structures are accompanied with large spatial scale shock waves. These shocks were postulated as possible sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The highest particle energies were expected for…
A review of theoretical results on cosmic ray first-order Fermi acceleration at relativistic shock waves is presented, with recent results substantially changing the existing knowledge on these processes. In particular one can not expect…
Cosmic ray story begins at the beginning of XX century. More then 100 years later, most of the main issues are still open questions, as sources, acceleration mechanism, propagation and composition. There is a continuing fascination with the…
Theory of the first-order Fermi acceleration of cosmic ray particles at relativistic shock waves is reviewed. We consider shocks with parallel and oblique, sub- and super-luminal magnetic field configurations and with finite-amplitude…
Particle acceleration at non-relativistic shocks can be very efficient, leading to the appearance of non-linear effects due to the dynamical reaction of the accelerated particles on the shock structure and to the non-linear amplification of…
It is presumed that the observed cosmic rays up to about $3\times 10^{18}$ eV are of Galactic origin, the particles being the ones which are found in the composition of the stellar winds of stars that explode as supernova into the…
We show that the secondary electrons ejected from the ionization of heavy ions can be injected into the acceleration process that occurs at supernova remnant shocks. This electron injection mechanism works since ions are ionized during the…
Understanding the origins of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) - which reach energies in excess of $10^{20}~{\rm eV}$ - stretches particle acceleration physics to its very limits. In this review, we discuss how such energies can be…
Although cosmic rays were discovered 90 years ago, we do not know how and where they are accelerated. There is compelling evidence that the highest energy cosmic rays are extra-galactic -- they cannot be contained by our galaxy's magnetic…
It is well accepted today that diffusive acceleration in shocks results to the cosmic ray spectrum formation. This is in principle true for non-relativistic shocks, since there is a detailed theory covering a large range of their properties…
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 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…
Cosmic ray acceleration in turbulent interstellar medium is considered. Turbulence is treated as ensemble of moving magnetic traps. We derive equations for particle momentum distribution function that describes acceleration of particles in…
The origin of Galactic cosmic-ray ions has remained an enigma for almost a century. Although it has generally been thought that they are accelerated in the shock waves associated with powerful supernova explosions-for which there have been…
The hypothesis that the entire cosmic ray spectrum, from $\lesssim1\,{\rm GeV}$ to $\gtrsim100\,{\rm EeV}$ energy, can be accounted for by diffusive shock acceleration on increasingly large scales is critically examined. Specifically, it is…
Since their first observation in 1962, the existence of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) remains a mystery in modern astrophysics. Those cosmic rays, with energies well above 50 EeV ($50\times 10^{18}$eV), can hardly be accelerated,…
We consider a cosmic ray spectrum that is a power law in momentum down to a cutoff and derive a lower cutoff corresponding to $E_{kin} \sim (30-60)$ MeV from the observed ionization rates in nearby diffuse clouds. While the real spectra of…
Using the Monte Carlo simulations we apply a method of discrete small amplitude particle momentum scattering to reproduce highly anisotropic conditions at relativistic shocks. We discusse acceleration times scales in relativistic shocks.…
It has been suggested that relativistic shocks in extragalactic sources may accelerate the most energetic cosmic rays. However, recent theoretical advances indicating that relativistic shocks are probably unable to accelerate particles to…
A simple model is exhibited in which the remnant density of charged vortons is used to provide candidates for explaining the observed ultra high energy cosmic rays (above $10^{20}$ eV). These vortons would be accelerated in active galaxies…