Related papers: Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) interact en route to Earth, producing secondary gamma-rays. For the case of high cosmic ray power and weak intergalactic magnetic fields, the deflections of these UHECRs may be small leading to…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with energies above 10$^{18.5}$ eV. Currently the first part of the Observatory nears completion in the southern hemisphere in Argentina. One…
The study of ultra high energy cosmic rays is a very important scientific problem. It is likely to have a huge impact in our understanding of the universe. Very high energy particles have been observed to hit the Earth whose origin is…
We present a brief introduction to the physics of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs), concentrating on the experimental results obtained so far and on what, from these results, can be inferred about the sources of UHECRs.
In its Phase I, the Pierre Auger Observatory has led to several observations, driving the field of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) research over the last 20 years. Major achievements obtained so far include the unprecedented precise…
We discuss the basic difficulties in understanding the origin of the highest energy particles in the Universe - the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR). It is difficult to imagine the sources they are accelerated in. Because of the strong…
The sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are still one of the main open questions in high-energy astrophysics. If UHECRs are accelerated in astrophysical sources, they are expected to produce high-energy photons and neutrinos…
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…
Large-scale accretion shocks around massive clusters of galaxies, generically expected in hierarchical scenarios of cosmological structure formation, are shown to be potential sources of the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) by…
We investigate the propagation of ultraheavy (UH) nuclei as ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). We show that their energy loss lengths at $\lesssim300$ EeV are significantly longer than those of protons and intermediate-mass nuclei, and…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) offer a unique chance to study the universe at energies inaccessible by man-made accelerators. Observations by ground based observatories have clarified several characteristics of these particles, but…
Extensive air showers are the result of billions of particle reactions initiated by single cosmic rays at ultra-high energy. Their characteristics are sensitive both to the mass of the primary cosmic ray and to the fine details of hadronic…
The measurement of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is an unique way to study article interactions at energies which are well above the capability of current accelerators. Significant progress in this field has occurred during last years,…
We investigate the detection of exotic massive strongly interacting hadrons (uhecrons) in ultra high energy cosmic ray telescopes. The conclusion is that experiments such as the Pierre Auger Observatory have the potential to detect these…
The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) remains an open questions in astrophysics. We explore two primary scenarios for the distribution of UHECR sources, assuming that their production rate follows either the cosmic…
While several arguments can be proposed against the existence of particles with energy in excess of $(3-5)\times 10^{19}$ eV in the cosmic ray spectrum, these particles are actually observed and their origin seeks for an explanation. After…
Cosmic-rays with energies exceeding 10^{19} eV are referred to as Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). The sources of these particles and their acceleration mechanism are unknown, and for many years have been the issue of much debate.…
Several explanations for the existence of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) invoke the idea that they originate from the decay of massive particles created in the reheating following inflation. It has been suggested that the decay…
The Pierre Auger Observatory, a hybrid detector for the study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), is now approaching completion. After describing Auger present status and performance, with an emphasis on the advantages provided by…
The primary ultrahigh energy particles which produce giant extensive air showers in the Earth's atmosphere present an intriguing mystery from two points of view: (1) How are these particles produced with such astounding energies, eight…