Related papers: Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from dark matter anni…
In light of the mounting evidence that the highest energy cosmic rays are dominated by protons and not gamma-rays, we discuss the prospect that these cosmic rays are generated in the decay or annihilation of superheavy relic particles. We…
The origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is still unknown. It has recently been proposed that UHECR anisotropies can be attributed to starburst galaxies or active galactic nuclei. We suggest that the latter is more likely and…
We shortly discuss several astrophysical scenarios leading to cosmic ray acceleration up to extremely high energies reaching the scale of 10^{20} eV. The processes suggested in the literature include acceleration at relativistic jet…
Theoretical aspects of potential astrophysical sources of the highest energy cosmic rays are discussed, including their energy budget and some issues on particle escape and propagation. After briefly addressing AGN jets and GRBs, we…
The origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays promises to lead us to a deeper understanding of the structure of matter. This is possible through the study of particle collisions at center-of-mass energies in interactions far larger than…
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…
Cosmic rays are charged relativistic particles that reach the Earth with extremely high energies, providing striking evidence of the existence of effective accelerators in the Universe. Below an energy around $\sim 10^{17}$ eV cosmic rays…
Here we discuss the latest developments in the debate, where the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray particles come from. In this brief review, we emphasize the predictions that necessarily follow from the various concepts proposed. We discuss both…
High-energy cosmic ray events present important challenges to particle astrophysics. Their nature and origin are often not well understood and, as they occur in an energy domain not accessible to particle accelerators, there is no clear…
This paper presents a brief review of the current status of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray observations and discusses nearby starburst-like galaxies as their possible origin.
High-energy photons from dark matter annihilation contribute to the cosmic gamma-ray background (CGB). Since dark matter particles are weakly interacting, annihilation can happen only in high density regions such as dark matter halos. The…
The origin of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is a half-century old enigma (Linsley 1963). The mystery has been deepened by an intriguing coincidence: over ten orders of magnitude in energy, the energy generation rates of UHECRs, PeV…
Recent international efforts have brought us closer to unveiling the century old mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Cosmic ray, gamma ray, and neutrino observatories are reaching the necessary sensitivity to study the highest energy…
The arguments suggesting an association between the sources of cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are presented. Recent GRB and UHECR observations are shown to strengthen these…
The origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) has been an open question for decades. Here, we use a combination of hydrodynamic simulations and general physical arguments to demonstrate that UHECRs can in principle be produced by…
Very high energy gamma-rays probe the long-standing mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Produced in the interactions of accelerated particles in astrophysical objects, they can be used to image cosmic particle accelerators. A first…
A review of the status of the knowledge in the field of High-energy cosmic particles is presented. The spectrum, arrival direction distribution and composition measurements are summarized, together with some implications for the…
The possibility that the Fermi scale is the only fundamental energy scale of Nature is under serious consideration at present, yet cosmic rays may already have provided direct evidence of new physics at a much higher scale. The recent…
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…
Ultra high energy cosmic ray events presently show a spectrum, which we interpret here as galactic cosmic rays due to a starburst in the radio galaxy Cen A pushed up in energy by the shock of a relativistic jet. The knee feature and the…