Related papers: Cosmic Ray Acceleration by Relativistic Shocks: Li…
Interpretation of the energy spectrum and arrival distribution of cosmic rays is complicated by lack of knowledge of the nature of the primaries. We review claims for the mass composition above 1017 eV where it can be determined only…
We have calculated the cosmic ray (CR) acceleration at young remnants from Type Ia supernovae expanding into a uniform interstellar medium (ISM). Adopting quasi-parallel magnetic fields, gasdynamic equations and the diffusion convection…
The impressive power-law decay of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays over more than thirty orders of magnitude in intensity and for energies ranging over eleven decades between $\simeq 10^9 $eV and $\simeq 10^{20} $eV is actually dotted…
Considerations of the collision losses for protons traversing the 2.7 K black body microwave radiation field have led to the conclusion that the highest energy cosmic rays, those observed at $\geq 10^{20}$ eV, must come from sources within…
Cosmic rays are charged particles that are accelerated to relativistic speeds by astrophysical shocks. Numerical models have been successful in confirming the acceleration process for (quasi-)parallel shocks, which have the magnetic field…
Large-scale accretion shocks around massive clusters of galaxies, generically expected in the cold dark matter scenario of cosmological structure formation, are shown to be plausible sources of the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays…
Even 100 years after the discovery of cosmic rays their origin remains a mystery. In recent years, TeV gamma-ray detectors have discovered and investigated many Galactic sources where particles are accelerated up to energies of 100 TeV.…
The dynamic processes of magnetic reconnection and turbulence cause magnetic islands/flux-ropes generation. The in-situ observations suggest that the coalescence or/and contraction of magnetic islands are responsible to the charged particle…
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 observed interaction energy of cosmic rays with atmospheric nuclei reaches up to a PeV in the center of mass. We compute nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-neutrino cross sections for various generic parton cross sections appearing in string…
We examine limits to the efficiency for particles acceleration in shearing flows, showing that relativistic flow speeds are required for efficient gradual shear acceleration. We estimate maximum achievable particle energies for parameters…
We review the basic ideas on the origin of cosmic rays with energy in excess of $\sim 10^{19}$ eV, in the light of the most recent observational findings. The limited statistics of events detected by the two largest experiments currently…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays, UHECR, are charged particles with energies between $\sim10^{18}\,{\rm eV}$ and $\sim3\times10^{20}\,{\rm eV}\sim50\,{\rm J}$. They exhibit fundamental physics at energies inaccessible to terrestrial…
The 320 EeV air shower detected by the Fly's Eye poses an important problem. Careful analysis of pathlength limitations for the possible particle types due to cosmic background radiation verifies that the particle very likely traveled less…
Investigations of the origin of cosmic rays are presented. Different methods are discussed: studies of cosmic gamma rays of energy from 30 MeV to about 10^15 eV (since photons point to their places of origin), studies of the mass…
The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the workings of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. Current observations show a spectrum consistent with an…
Motivated by recent measurements of the major components of the cosmic radiation around 10 TeV/nucleon and above, we discuss the phenomenology of a model in which there are two distinct kinds of cosmic ray accelerators in the galaxy.…
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…
When a magnetised, thermal plasma containing a shock wave efficiently accelerates Cosmic Rays (CR) a reaction is exerted on the fluid structure. The simplest description of this process involves three conservation equations for the…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved astrophysical questions. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic…