Related papers: Physics of Extremely High Energy Cosmic Rays
We review some of the recent progress in our knowledge about high-energy cosmic rays, with an emphasis on the interpretation of the different observational results. We discuss the effects that are relevant to shape the cosmic ray spectrum…
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…
Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays, EECRs -- cosmic rays with energies beyond the GZK cutoff (i.e. greater than 100 EeV) are scarce. Only a few of such events have been detected by air shower experiments and the nature of the primary particles are…
Following the discovery of the cosmic rays by Victor Hess in 1912, more than 70 years and numerous technological developments were needed before an unambiguous detection of the first very-high-energy gamma-ray source in 1989 was made. Since…
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 observation of neutrinos from cosmic accelerators will be revolutionary. High energy neutrinos are closely connected to ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and their sources. Cosmic ray sources are likely to produce neutrinos and the…
High-energy cosmic neutrinos can reveal new fundamental particles and interactions, probing energy and distance scales far exceeding those accessible in the laboratory. This white paper describes the outstanding particle physics questions…
The origin of the particles in the highest energy end of the cosmic ray spectrum is discussed in the context of the wider problem of the origin of the whole cosmic radiation as observed at the Earth. In particular we focus our attention on…
One of the main objectives of cosmic-ray studies are precise measurements of energy and chemical composition of particles with extreme energies. Large and sophisticated detectors are used to find events seen as showers starting in the…
The surprising lack of a high energy cutoff in the cosmic ray spectrum at the highest energies together with an apparently isotropic distribution of arrival directions have strongly challenged most models proposed for the acceleration of…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays interacting with the radiation fields in the universe cause electromagnetic cascades resulting in a flux of extragalactic gamma rays, detectable to some 100 GeV. Recent precise measurements of the extragalactic…
Forty years have passed since the first Explorer orbiting observatory - the 1958 mission used to discover the Van Allen radiation belts outside the atmosphere - ushered in the modern age of space science. Even though in situ observations of…
With the discovery of a high-energy neutrino flux in the 0.1 PeV to PeV range from beyond the Earth's atmosphere with the IceCube detector, neutrino astronomy has achieved a major breakthrough in the exploration of the high-energy universe.…
The field of high-energy neutrino astronomy has seen rapid progress over the last 15 years, with the development and operation of the first large-volume detectors. Here, we review the motivation for construction of these large instruments…
The search for the origin of cosmic rays is as active as ever, mainly driven by new insights provided by recent pieces of observation. Much effort is being channelled in putting the so called supernova paradigm for the origin of galactic…
In the first part of this review we discuss the basic observational features at the end of the cosmic ray energy spectrum. We also present there the main characteristics of each of the experiments involved in the detection of these…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays are mostly charged particles and they are therefore deflected by magnetic fields on their path from their sources to Earth. An interesting phenomenon arising from these deflections is the appearance of multiple…
Our knowledge of the high-energy universe is undergoing a period of rapid change as new astronomical detectors of high-energy radiation start to operate at their design sensitivities. Now is a boomtime for high-energy astrophysics, with new…
We give a summary of the theoretical attempts to make sense of the observational data concerning the highest energy cosmic rays, (E > 3x10^{19} eV).
We introduce neutrino astronomy from the observational fact that Nature accelerates protons and photons to energies in excess of 10^{20} and 10^{13} eV, respectively. Although the discovery of cosmic rays dates back close to a century, we…