Related papers: Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays from the Local Void
It has been speculated that the recently detected ultra-high energy cosmic rays may originate from the decays of relic particles with mass of order $10^{12}$ GeV clustered in the halo of our Galaxy. This hypothesis can be tested through…
It is proposed that the highest energy $\sim 10^{20}$eV cosmic ray primaries are protons, decay products of a long-lived progenitor whose high kinetic energy arises from decay of a distant (cosmological) superheavy particle, G. Such a…
We compute the ultra-high energy cosmic ray horizon, i.e. the distance up to which cosmic ray sources may significantly contribute to the fluxes above a certain threshold on the observed energies. We obtain results both for proton and heavy…
The topological defect scenario of origin of the observed highest energy cosmic rays is reviewed. Under a variety of circumstances, topological defects formed in the early Universe can be sources of very massive particles in the Universe…
The physics of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays will be reviewed, discussing the latest experimental results and theoretical models aiming at explaining the observations in terms of spectra, mass composition and possible sources. It will be…
The origin of Ultra--High Energy ($E \gsim 10^{20}$ eV) Cosmic Rays (UHECR) remains mysterious. I discuss ``top--down'' models, where UHECR originate from the decay of very massive, long--lived particles. I summarize the calculation of the…
The existence of cosmic ray particles up to the ultra-high energy limit (> 10^20 eV) is now beyond any doubt. The detection of cosmic particles with such energies imposes a challenge for the comprehension of their sources and nature. On one…
From the analysis of AGASA data above $4 \times 10^{19}$ eV, we show that the ultra-high energy cosmic rays flux is neither purely isotropic, nor reflects the expected anisotropy from a pure source distribution that maps large scale…
Very recently, a possible clustering of a subset of observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays above about 40EeV (4x10^19eV) in pairs near the supergalactic plane was reported. We show that a confirmation of this effect would provide information…
The cosmic rays spectrum has been shown to extend well beyond 10^20 eV. With nearly 20 events observed in the last 40 years, it is now established that particles with energies near or above 10^21 eV. No nearby astrophysical object has been…
Recent measurements of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos are briefly reviewed. With several new large scale observatories nearing completion or becoming fully operational only very recently, a large body of high quality and high…
We argue that magnetic monopoles can not be associated to the highest energy cosmic rays as recently suggested. Both the observed spectrum and the arrival direction disagree with observation.
Annihilation of clumped superheavy dark matter provides an interesting explanation for the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. The predicted anisotropy signal provides a unique signature for this scenario.
Origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays is an unsolved problem. Several proposals such as Z-burst, decay of super massive matter, susy particles as a primary, neutrino as a primary in extra dimension models exist in the literature which try…
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…
We address some current theoretical issues around ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We recall that scenarios producing more gamma-rays than cosmic rays up to high redshift can in general only provide a sub-dominant contribution to the…
The highest energy cosmic rays could be produced by drifts in magnetized, cylindrically collimated, sheared jets of powerful active galaxies (i.e. FR II radiogalaxies; radio loud quasars and high power BL Lacs). We show that in such…
Cosmic rays are energetic charged particles from extraterrestrial sources, with the highest energy events thought to come from extragalactic sources. Their arrival is infrequent, so detection requires instruments with large collecting…
The origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays remains a mystery. The lack of a high energy cutoff in the cosmic ray spectrum together with an apparently isotropic distribution of arrival directions have strongly constrained most models…
We study the large-scale distribution of the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays observed by various experiments. Despite clearly insufficient statistics, we find a deficit of cosmic rays at energies higher than 10^{20} eV…