Related papers: Was the Highest Energy Cosmic Ray a Photon?
The shape of the longitudinal development of the showers generated in the atmosphere by very high energy cosmic ray particles encodes information about the mass composition of the flux, and about the properties of hadronic interactions that…
The scientific achievements of the Pierre Auger Collaboration cover diverse and complementary fields of research. The search for the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is based on the measurement of the energy spectrum and…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest observatory of high-energy cosmic rays. It is located in Argentina and has been taking data since January 2004. Extensive air showers initiated by cosmic rays are measured by the hybrid detector,…
In order to get the primary energy of cosmic rays from their extensive air showers using the fluorescence detection technique, the invisible energy should be added to the measured calorimetric energy. The invisible energy is the energy…
The content of extremely high energy (EHE) photons in the highest energy cosmic rays can be investigated by analyzing showers arriving from directions where the perpendicular component of the Earth's magnetic field is high or showers…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved astrophysical questions. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic…
The status of the field of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays is summarized, from the point of view of the latest results of the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) Experiment. HiRes results are presented, and compared with those of the Akeno Giant…
We consider the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) spectrum as measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. Top-down models for the origin of UHECRs predict an increasing photon component at energies above about $10^{19.7}$eV. Here we…
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…
This paper presents the highlights from the recent measurements of the energy spectrum, mass composition, and arrival directions of the ultra-high energy ($> 10^{17}$ eV = 0.1 EeV) cosmic rays (UHECR) by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The…
Although recent measurements of the shower profiles of ultra-high energy cosmic rays suggest that they are largely initiated by heavy nuclei, such conclusions rely on hadronic interaction models which have large uncertainties. We…
The origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is discussed in light of the latest observational results from the Pierre Auger Observatory, highlighting potential astrophysical sources such as active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and…
The radio technique for the detection of cosmic particles has seen a major revival in recent years. New and planned experiments in the lab and the field, such as GLUE, Anita, LUNASKA, Codalema, LOPES as well as sophisticated Monte Carlo…
A brief review of the energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays above $10^{10}$ eV and the measurement techniques used to investigate the ultra high energy ones is given. This is followed by a discussion of the atmospheric shower profile of…
Both the lack of observation of ultra-high energy (UHE) photons and the limitations of the state-of-the-art methodology being applied for their identification motivate studies on alternative approaches to the relevant simulations and the…
The Pierre Auger Observatory has a unique potential to search for ultra-high energy photons (above ~1 EeV). First experimental limits on photons were obtained during construction of the southern part of the Observatory. Remarkably, already…
Ultra high energy particles arrive at Earth constantly. They provide a beam at energies higher than any man-made accelerator, but at a very low rate. Two large experiments, the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array experiment,…
In this article I review the main theoretical problems that are posed by the highest energy end of the observed cosmic ray spectrum, stressing the importance of establishing their composition in order to decide between proposed scenarios. I…
One of the most challenging open questions regarding the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) deals with the shape of the source emission spectra. A commonly-used simplifying assumption is that the source spectra of the highest…
A catalog containing details of the highest-energy cosmic rays recorded through the detection of extensive air-showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory is presented with the aim of opening the data to detailed examination. Descriptions of…