Related papers: Some Current Theoretical Issues around Ultra-High …
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 bulk of observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays could be light or heavier elements, and originate from an either steady or transient population of sources. This leaves us with four general categories of sources. Energetic requirements set…
We briefly review the status of cosmic ray studies between $10^{14}$ eV and the highest observed energies, namely a few times $10^{20}$ eV. Because of the rather low incident fluxes in this energy range, the studies mostly rely on ground…
This paper presents an introduction to the astrophysics of cosmic rays and diffuse gamma rays and discusses some of the puzzles that have emerged recently due to more precise data and improved propagation models: the excesses in Galactic…
We study the large-scale distribution of the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays observed by various experiments. Despite clearly insufficient statistics, we find a deficit of cosmic rays at energies higher than 10^{20} eV…
Dark matter annihilation and other processes may precipitate a flux of diffuse ultra-high energy $\gamma$-rays. These $\gamma$-rays may be observable in present day experiments which observe diffuse fluxes at the GeV scale. Yet the universe…
We discuss the region of transition between galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays. The exact shapes and compositions of these two components contains information about important parameters of powerful astrophysical sources and the…
The origin of cosmic rays with energies higher than 10$^{20}$ eV remains a mystery. Accelerating particles up to these energies is a challenge even for the most energetic astrophysical objects known. While the isotropy in arrival directions…
Possible existence of extragalactic ultra-high energy cosmic ray sources giving a very small particle flux on the Earth is considered. Accretion discs around supermassive black holes where particles are accelerated in electric fields are…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) interact en route to Earth, producing secondary gamma-rays. For the case of high cosmic ray power and weak intergalactic magnetic fields, the deflections of these UHECRs may be small leading to…
Understanding the acceleration of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays is one of the great challenges of contemporary astrophysics. In this short review, we summarize the general observational constraints on their composition, spectrum and…
Large-scale accretion shocks around massive clusters of galaxies, generically expected in hierarchical scenarios of cosmological structure formation, are shown to be potential sources of the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) by…
In this review we motivate ultrahigh energy neutrino searches and their connection to ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. We give an overview of neutrino production mechanisms and their potential sources. Several model-independent benchmarks of…
Cosmic ray story begins at the beginning of XX century. More then 100 years later, most of the main issues are still open questions, as sources, acceleration mechanism, propagation and composition. There is a continuing fascination with the…
We survey the theory and experimental tests for the propagation of cosmic rays in the Galaxy up to energies of 10^15 eV. A guide to the previous reviews and essential literature is given, followed by an exposition of basic principles. The…
Combined data from gamma-ray telescopes and cosmic-ray detectors have produced some new surprising insights regarding intergalactic and galactic magnetic fields, as well as extragalactic background light. We review some recent advances,…
Recent high energy gamma-ray observations of both single supernova remnants and superbubbles, together with observations of supernovae, star formation regions, and local cosmic ray composition, now provide an integrated framework tying…
We briefly describe the energy loss processes of ultrahigh energy protons, heavier nuclei and gamma rays in interactions with the universal photon fields of the Universe. We then discuss the modification of the accelerated cosmic ray energy…
The topological defect scenario of origin of the observed highest energy cosmic rays is reviewed. Under a variety of circumstances, topological defects formed in the early Universe can be sources of very massive particles in the Universe…
Recent studies, supported by updated hadronic interaction models, suggest that the mass composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays may be heavier than previously assumed. This has significant implications for source identification, as the…