Related papers: At what particle energy do extragalactic cosmic ra…
The differential energy spectrum of the cosmic radiation from solar modulation energies up to 5x10**19 eV is correctly predicted by a recent theory of the knee and ankle which uses only one normalization point. This remarkable quantitative…
The energy range encompassing the ankle of the cosmic ray energy spectrum probably marks the exhaustion of the accelerating sources in our Galaxy, as well as the end of the Galactic confinement. Furthermore, this is the region where the…
There are two promising scenarios that explain the ankle, which is a dip in the spectrum of cosmic rays at $\sim 10^{19}$ eV. A scenario interprets the ankle as the transition from Galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays ({\it…
We discuss the differences induced by the assumed composition of extragalactic sources on the predicted UHECR spectrum and the energy evolution of $<X_{\max}>$, i.e. the mean value of the atmospheric depth at the cosmic-ray air shower…
In this article we examine the hypothesis that the highest energy cosmic rays are complex nuclei from extragalactic sources. Under reasonable physical assumptions, we show that the nearby metally rich starburst galaxies (M82 and NGC 253)…
Cosmic rays around the knee are generally believed to be of galactic origin. Observations on their energy spectrum and chemical composition are important for understanding the acceleration and propagation of these cosmic rays. In addition,…
Investigations of the energy spectrum as well as the mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range of PeVto EeV are important for understanding both, the origin of the galactic and the extragalactic cosmic rays. Recently, three modern…
We consider the possibility of explaining the observed spectrum and composition of the cosmic rays with energies above $10^{17}$ eV in terms of two different extragalactic populations of sources in the presence of a turbulent intergalactic…
The analysis of cosmic rays fluxes as a function of energy reveals a {\it knee} slightly below $10^{16}$ eV and an {\it ankle} close to $10^{19}$ eV. Their physical origins remain up to now quite enigmatic; in particular, no elementary…
The origin of cosmic rays remains an unresolved fundamental problem in astrophysics. The synergy of multiple observational probes, including the energy spectra, the mass composition, and anisotropy is a viable way to jointly uncover this…
We report a measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays for energies above $2.5 {\times} 10^{18}~$eV based on 215,030 events recorded with zenith angles below $60^\circ$. A key feature of the work is that the estimates of the energies…
We use a kinetic-equation approach to describe the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic ray protons and nuclei and calculate the expected spectra and mass composition at the Earth for different assumptions on the source injection spectra…
This review summarizes recent developments in the understanding of high-energy cosmic rays. It focuses on galactic and presumably extragalactic particles in the energy range from the knee (10^15 eV) up to the highest energies observed…
The Galactic cosmic ray spectrum is a remarkably straight power law. Our current understanding is that the dominant sources that accelerate cosmic rays up to the knee ($3 \times 10^{15}$ eV) or perhaps even the ankle ($3 \times 10^{18}$…
The dip is a feature in the diffuse spectrum of ultra-high energy (UHE) protons caused by electron-positron pair production on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. For a power-law generation spectrum $E^{-2.7}$, the calculated…
A major feature of the energy spectrum of the cosmic radiation above 10$^{19}$ eV is the increasing fraction of heavy nuclei with respect to light nuclei. This fact, along with other simple assumptions, is adopted to calculate the energy…
We investigate the problem of transition from Galactic cosmic rays to extragalactic ultra high energy cosmic rays. Using the model for extragalactic ultra high energy cosmic rays and observed all-particle cosmic ray spectrum, we calculate…
We show that the cosmic ray (CR) knee can be entirely explained by energy-dependent CR leakage from the Milky Way, with an excellent fit to all existing data. We test this hypothesis calculating the trajectories of individual CRs in the…
The energy spectrum of cosmic rays between 10**16 eV and 10**18 eV, derived from measurements of the shower size (total number of charged particles) and the total muon number of extensive air showers by the KASCADE-Grande experiment, is…
We study the anisotropies on large angular scales which can be present in the flux of cosmic rays reaching the Earth from a population of extragalactic sources, focusing on the energy range between the second knee and the ankle. In this…