Related papers: Was the Highest Energy Cosmic Ray a Photon?
Studies of the composition of the highest energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger Observatory, including examination of hadronic physics effects on the structure of extensive air showers.
We argue that the data published by the Pierre Auger Collaboration (arXiv:0711.2256) disfavor at 99% confidence level their hypothesis that most of the highest-energy cosmic rays are protons from nearby astrophysical sources, either Active…
We present an updated version of the {\it SimProp} Monte Carlo code to study the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays in astrophysical backgrounds computing the cosmogenic neutrino fluxes expected on earth. The study of secondary…
The High Elevation Auger Telescopes (HEAT) are three tiltable fluorescence telescopes which represent a low energy enhancement of the fluorescence telescope system of the southern site of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. The…
Flares produced by certain classes of astrophysical objects may be sources of some ultra-high-energy particles, which, if they are photons, would group into clusters of events correlated in space and time. Identification of such clustering…
Possible extragalactic sources of cosmic rays at energies above 4*10^{19} eV detected with the Yakutsk array are sought. Correlation of the shower arrival directions with objects from Veron's catalog that are located closer than 100 Mpc…
We revisit and extend the analysis supporting a 60 year-old suggestion that cosmic rays air showers resulting from primary particles with energies above 10^{18} eV should be straightforward to detect with radar ranging techniques, where the…
The Pierre Auger Observatory, the world's largest observatory of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR), offers a unique insight into the properties of hadronic interactions occurring in air showers at energies well above those reached at…
The identification of very high energy photons is of great importance for the understanding of the origin of extreme energy cosmic rays (EECR). Several can be the sources of high energy photons at Earth. A guaranteed component is the flux…
The origin of the highest energy Galactic cosmic rays is still not understood, nor is the transition to EeV extragalactic particles. Scientific progress requires enhancements of existing air-shower arrays, such as: IceCube with its surface…
At present there are still several open questions about the origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays. However, great progress in this area has been made in recent years due to the data collected by the present generation of ground based…
The Pierre Auger Observatory was designed for a high statistics, full sky study of cosmic rays at the highest energies. Energy, direction and composition measurements are intended to illuminate the mysteries of the most energetic particles…
Ultra high energy photons play an important role as an independent probe of the photo-pion production mechanism by UHE cosmic rays. Their observation, or non-observation, may constrain astrophysical scenarios for the origin of UHECRs and…
The Auger project was designed to study the high-energy cosmic rays by measuring the properties of the showers produced in the atmosphere. The Southern Auger Observatory has taken data since January 2004 and is now completed. Results on…
The High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment has measured the flux of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays using the stereoscopic air fluorescence technique. The HiRes experiment consists of two detectors that observe cosmic ray showers via the…
The Pierre Auger Observatory concluded its first phase of data taking after seventeen years of operation. The dataset collected by its surface and fluorescence detectors (FD and SD) provides us with the most precise estimates of the energy…
The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the workings of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. Current observations show a spectrum consistent with an…
The first interactions of photon-induced showers are of electromagnetic nature, and the transfer of energy to the hadron/muon channel is reduced with respect to the bulk of hadron-induced showers. This results in a lower number of secondary…
Future detection of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) produced by Ultra High Energy Cosmic Particles (UHECP) by means of space based fluorescence telescopes will open a new window on the universe and allow cosmic ray and neutrino astronomy at a…
The Pierre Auger Observatory advances the study of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays through a hybrid system of surface and fluorescence detectors. This paper presents recent results, including refined spectrum measurements, anisotropy…