Related papers: Probing UHECR sources - Constraints from cosmic-ra…
Over the last decade, observations have shown that the mean mass of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) increases progressively toward the highest energies. However, the precise composition is still unknown, and several theoretical…
Cosmic rays begin to reveal their secrets at energies above 5 EeV. Beyond this characteristic energy, known as the spectral "ankle", the arrival-direction data from the Pierre Auger Observatory show anisotropy on large angular scales of…
The sharp change in slope of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) spectrum around 10^{18.6} eV (the ankle), combined with evidence of a light but extragalactic component near and below the ankle which evolves to intermediate composition…
Recent measurements of the properties of cosmic rays above 10^17 eV are summarized and implications on our contemporary understanding of their origin are discussed. Cosmic rays with energies exceeding 10^20 eV have been measured, they are…
We use a kinetic-equation approach to describe the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic ray protons and nuclei and calculate the expected spectra and mass composition at the Earth for different assumptions on the source injection spectra…
The energy losses and spectra of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) are calculated for protons as primary particles. The attention is given to the energy losses due to electron-positron production in collisions with the microwave 2.73 K…
The energetics, spectrum, and composition of cosmic rays with energies below about $10^{15}$ eV are fairly well explained by models involving supernova shocks. In contrast, no widely accepted theory exists for the origin of ultra-high…
The Pierre Auger Observatory aims to determine the nature and origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR). The Auger hybrid detector combines fluorescence observations of extended air showers, initiated in the atmosphere by these…
We derive lower bounds on the density of sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from the lack of significant clustering in the arrival directions of the highest energy events detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The density of…
We outline two concepts to explain Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs), one based on radio galaxies and their relativistic jets and terminal hot spots, and one based on relativistic Super-Novae (SNe) or Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in…
We update the constraints on the location of the nearest UHECR source. By analyzing recent data from the Pierre Auger Observatory using state-of-the-art CR propagation models, we reaffirm the need of local sources with a distance less than…
We study the time dependent propagation of sub-ankle ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) originating from point-like Galactic sources. We show that drift in the Galactic magnetic field (GMF) may play an important role in the propagation…
We explore the possibility of a local origin for ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Using the catalogue of Karachentsev et al. including nearby galaxies with distances less than 10Mpc (Local Volume), we search for a correlation with…
The sharp change in slope of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHECR) spectrum around 10^18.6 eV (the ankle), combined with evidence of a light but extragalactic component near and below the ankle and intermediate composition above, has…
We explore the potential of a future, ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) experiment, that is able to overcome the limitation of low statistics, to detect anisotropy in the arrival directions of UHECRs. We concentrate on the lower energy…
The Southern Pierre Auger Observatory is now nearing completion and the accumulating data sample has already allowed to extract scientific results of relevance for ultra-high energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) physics. This lecture focuses on the…
After a century of observations, we still do not know the origin of cosmic rays. I will review the current state of cosmic ray observations at the highest energies, and their implications for proposed acceleration models and secondary…
Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest energy messenger from space, with energies exceeding 1 EeV. Although UHECRs were discovered over 60 years ago, their origin still remains a mystery. Pinpointing sources of UHECRs is…
In many models, the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are assumed to accelerate particles to the same maximum energy. Motivated by the fact that candidate astrophysical accelerators exhibit a vast diversity in terms of their…
We calculate the number density and luminosity of the sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), using the information about the small scale anisotropies and the observed spectra. We find that the number of doublets and triplets…