Related papers: Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays and de Sitter Vacua
We explore scenarios where the highest energy cosmic rays (HECR) are produced by new particle physics near the grand unification scale. Using detailed numerical simulations of extragalactic cosmic and gamma-ray propagation, we show the…
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, above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cut-off of cosmic ray spectrum, may be produced in decays of superheavy long-living X-particles. We conjecture that these particles may be produced naturally in the early…
We propose that the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays beyond the GZK cutoff and the origin of small cosmological constant can both be explained by vacuum tunneling effects in a theory with degenerate vacua and fermionic doublets. By…
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…
We will discuss the main relevant aspects of the physics of ultra high energy cosmic rays. After a short recap of the experimental evidences, we will review theoretical models aiming at describing the sources of these extremely energetic…
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…
We explore scenarios where the highest energy cosmic rays are produced by new particle physics near the grand unification scale. Using detailed numerical simulations of extragalactic nucleon, gamma-ray, and neutrino propagation, we show the…
In this paper we review the hypothesis that a considerable part of the cosmic ray flux observed above about $10^{19}\eV$ may be produced by decaying or annihilating topological defects left over from phase transitions in the early universe…
Two processes of matter creation after inflation: 1) gravitational creation of superheavy (quasi)stable particles, and 2) non-thermal phase transitions leading to formation of topological defects, may be relevant to the resolution of the…
Stable, quantized gravitational bound states of primordial black holes called Holeums could have been produced in the early universe and could be a component of the Super Heavy Dark Matter (SHDM) present in galactic halos. We show that…
We discuss the production of ultra high energy neutrinos coming from the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays and in the framework of top-down models for the production of these extremely energetic particles. We show the importance…
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…
Superheavy (SH) quasistable particles generated in the Early Universe could be responsable for Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) and be a component of Cold Dark Matter (CDM) in the universe. These particles are likely to cluster in the…
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…
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…
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…
I review gamma-ray burst models (GRBs) and observations, and discuss the possible production of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos in both the standard internal shock models and the newer generation of photospheric and hadronic GRB…
We study the decays of ultraheavy (m_X \geq 10^{13}GeV) and quasistable (lifetime \tau_X much larger than the age of the Universe t_0) particles as the source of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHE CR). These particles are assumed to…
Multidimensional modification of gravity with a smaller mass scale of the gravitational interaction is considered. Stable by assumption dark matter particles could decay via interactions with virtual black holes. The decay rates of such…