Related papers: Cosmic ray-driven bioenergetics for Life in Molecu…
One century ago Viktor Hess carried out several balloon flights that led him to conclude that the penetrating radiation responsible for the discharge of electroscopes was of extraterrestrial origin. One century from the discovery of this…
Combined recent data from cosmic-ray detectors and gamma-ray detectors have produced some surprising insights regarding the sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), magnetic fields inside and outside the Milky Way, and the…
Cosmic ray astronomy attempts to identify and study the sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. It is unique in its reliance on charged particles as the information carriers. While no discrete source of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays has…
The first light from stars and quasars ended the ``dark ages'' of the universe and led to the reionization of hydrogen by redshift 7. Current observations are at the threshold of probing this epoch. The study of high-redshift sources is…
The 21-cm signal from the cosmic reionization epoch can shed light on the history of heating of the primordial intergalactic medium (IGM) at z~30-10. It has been suggested that X-rays from the first accreting black holes could significantly…
We will here discuss how the gamma-ray emission from molecular clouds can be used to probe the cosmic ray flux in distant regions of the Galaxy and to constrain the highly unknown cosmic ray diffusion coefficient. In particular we will…
The thermodynamic dissipation theory for the origin of life asserts a thermodynamic imperative for the origin of life, suggesting that the fundamental molecules of life originated as self-organized molecular photon dissipative structures…
It is generally regarded that the bulk of cosmic rays originate in the Galaxy and that those below the 'knee' (the rapid steepening in the energy spectrum) at a few PeV come from Galactic supernovae, the particles being accelerated by the…
Reionization represents an important phase in the history of our Universe when ultraviolet radiation from the first luminous sources, primarily stars and accreting black holes, ionized the neutral hydrogen atoms in the intergalactic medium…
The study of high energy cosmic rays is a diversified field of observational and phenomenological physics addressing questions ranging from shock acceleration of charged particles in various astrophysical objects, via transport properties…
Directional ion transport across membranes maintains living systems in nonequilibrium, which underlies chemiosmotic energy conversion. However, the physical origin of collectively organized ion transport in primitive cellular systems…
Cosmic rays are energetic nuclei that permeate the entire Galactic disk. Their existence requires the presence of powerful particle accelerators. While Galactic supernova explosions may supply the required energy, there is growing evidence…
The total cosmic-ray luminosity of the Galaxy is an important constraint on models of cosmic-ray generation. The diffuse high energy $\gamma$-ray and radio-synchrotron emissions of the Milky Way are used to derive this luminosity. The…
Recent observations provide compelling evidence that the bulk of the high energy cosmic rays (CRs) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are co-produced by highly relativistic jets of plasmoids of stellar matter. These jets are launched by fall back…
Stable, quantized gravitational bound states of primordial black holes called Holeums could have been produced in the early universe and could be a component of the Super Heavy Dark Matter (SHDM) present in galactic halos. We show that…
Molecular clouds are expected to emit non-thermal radiation due to cosmic ray interactions in the dense magnetized gas. Such emission is amplified if a cloud is located close to an accelerator of cosmic rays and if cosmic rays can leave the…
Superbubbles (SBs) are amongst the greatest injectors of energy into the Galaxy, and have been proposed to be the acceleration site of Galactic cosmic rays. They are thought to be powered by the fast stellar winds and powerful supernova…
Ongoing experimental efforts to detect cosmic sources of high energy neutrinos are guided by the expectation that astrophysical accelerators of cosmic ray protons would also generate neutrinos through interactions with ambient matter and/or…
This thesis investigates the Epoch of Cosmic Reionization (EoR), a key period in the early Universe when the first luminous sources formed and their radiation transformed the intergalactic medium (IGM) from neutral to ionized. Understanding…
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…