Related papers: The highest-energy cosmic rays
We investigate the proposal that primary cosmic rays of energy above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff are exotic massive strongly interacting particles (uhecrons). We study the properties of air showers produced by uhecrons and find that…
From direct observations of the longitudinal development of ultra-high energy air showers performed with the Pierre Auger Observatory, upper limits of 3.8%, 2.4%, 3.5% and 11.7% (at 95% c.l.) are obtained on the fraction of cosmic-ray…
I give a concise introduction into high energy cosmic ray physics, including also few related aspects of high energy gamma-ray and neutrino astrophysics. The main emphasis is placed on astrophysical questions, and the level of the…
Cosmic rays represent one of the most important energy transformation processes of the universe. They bring information about the surrounding universe, our galaxy, and very probably also the extragalactic space, at least at the highest…
Although cosmic rays were discovered a century ago, we do not know where or how they are accelerated. There is a realistic hope that the oldest problem in astronomy will be solved soon by ambitious experimentation: air shower arrays of…
The Telescope Array (TA) collaboration has measured the energy spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with primary energies above 1.6 x 10^(18) eV. This measurement is based upon four years of observation by the surface detector…
Cosmic rays are messengers from highly energetic events in the Universe. These rare ultra-high-energy particles can be detected efficiently and in an affordable way using large arrays of radio antennas. Linearly polarized geomagnetic…
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…
Cosmic rays reaching the atmosphere of an astrophysical object produce showers of secondary particles that may then escape into space. Here we obtain the flux of gamma rays and neutrinos of energy $E>10$ GeV emitted by the Sun, Jupiter and…
The Gerasimova-Zatsepin effect of collisions of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray nuclei with photons emitted by the sun may cause two simultaneous air showers on Earth. This effect is simulated using the full energy spectrum of solar photons,…
An overview on the present observational status and phenomenological understanding of cosmic rays above 10^16 eV is given. Above these energies the cosmic ray flux is expected to be gradually dominated by an extra-galactic component. In…
The average mass composition of cosmic rays with primary energies between $10^{17}$eV and $10^{18}$eV has been studied using a hybrid detector consisting of the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) prototype and the MIA muon array.…
There are some discrepancies in the results on energy spectrum from Yakutsk, AGASA, and HiRes experiments. In this work differential energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays based on the Yakutsk EAS Array data is presented. For the largest…
It is proposed that the highest energy $\sim 10^{20}$eV cosmic ray primaries are protons, decay products of a long-lived progenitor which has propagated from typically $\sim 100$Mpc. Such a scenario can occur in e.g. SU(15) grand…
When high-energy cosmic rays (gamma's, protons, or heavy nuclei) impinge onto the Earth's atmosphere, they interact at high altitude with the air nuclei as targets. By repeated interaction of the secondaries an `extensive air shower' (EAS)…
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…
Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are the most energetic of any subatomic particles ever observed in nature. The quest for their mysterious origin is currently a major scientific challenge. Here we explore the possibility that these particles…
The dominant background for observations of gamma-rays in the energy region above 50 GeV with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes are cosmic-ray events. The images of most of the cosmic ray showers look significantly different from…
The accurate determination of the absolute energy scale in cosmic ray measurements is both a challenging and fundamentally important task. We present how measurements of radio pulses from extensive air showers with the Auger Engineering…
Air shower simulation programs are essential tools for the analysis of data from cosmic ray experiments and for planning the layout of new detectors. They are used to estimate the energy and mass of the primary particle. Unfortunately the…