Related papers: Opening the ultra high energy cosmic ray window fr…
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 origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with energies above E > 1017eV, is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the engines of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. This is a…
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…
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.…
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…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) can be a signal from very early (post-inflationary) Universe. At this cosmological epoch Topological Defects (TD) and long-lived suprheavy (SH) particles are expected to be naturally and effectively…
Decaying superheavy particles can be produced by Topological Defects or, in case they are quasi-stable, as relics from the early Universe. The decays of these particles can be the sources of observed Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays ($E \sim…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are particles, likely protons and/or nuclei, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV that are observed through the giant air showers they produce in the atmosphere. These particles carry the information on…
Understanding the origins of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) - which reach energies in excess of $10^{20}~{\rm eV}$ - stretches particle acceleration physics to its very limits. In this review, we discuss how such energies can be…
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 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…
Significant progress has been made over the past decades towards unveiling the sources of the most energetic particles in nature, the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Despite these advancements, the exact astrophysical sites capable…
Cosmic ray particles with energies in excess of 10**(20) eV have been detected. The sources as well as the physical mechanism(s) responsible for endowing cosmic ray particles with such enormous energies are unknown. This report gives a…
It is pointed out that the observed extremely high energy cosmic rays (EHECR) above $10^{11}$ GeV and the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU), both may have a common origin in baryon number violating decays of supermassive ``X''…
In this paper we briefly discuss the problem of the origin of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays in the framework of Top-Down models. We show that, for high energy of decays and in a wide range of spectra of injected protons, their extragalactic…
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…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest energy messengers of the present universe, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV. Studies of astrophysical particles (nuclei, electrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are atomic nuclei from space with vastly higher energies than any other particles ever observed. Their origin and chemical composition remain a mystery. As we show here, the large- and…
We consider the advantages of and the problems associated with hypotheses to explain the origin of ulthrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR: E > 10 EeV) and the "trans GZK" cosmic rays (TGZK: E > 100 EeV), both through "old physics"…
We briefly discuss three aspects related to the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) namely: 1) particle acceleration in astrophysical sources; 2) transition to an extragalactic origin; 3) spectrum and anisotropies at the…