Related papers: The Origin of Cosmic Rays
Cosmic rays (CRs) are charged particles that arrive at Earth isotropically from all directions and interact with the atmosphere. The presence of a spectral knee feature seen in the CR spectrum at $\sim$3 PeV energies is an evidence that…
The absence of the expected GZK cutoff strongly challenges the notion that the highest-energy cosmic rays are of distant extragalactic origin. We discuss the possibility that these ultra-high-energy events originate in our Galaxy and…
The energies of cosmic rays, fully ionized charged nuclei, extend over a wide range up to 10^20 eV. A particularly interesting energy region spans from 10^14 to 10^18 eV, where the all-particle energy spectrum exhibits two interesting…
A critical review of the standard paradigm for the origin of Galactic cosmic rays is presented. Recent measurements of local and far-away cosmic rays reveal unexpected behaviours, which challenge the commonly accepted scenario. These recent…
Supernova remnants (SNRs) have long been suspected to be the primary sources of Galactic cosmic rays. Over the past decades, great strides have been made in the modelling of particle acceleration, magnetic field amplification, and escape…
A short overview is presented of current issues concerning the production and evolution of Li, Be and B in the Milky Way. In particular, the observed "primary-like" evolution of Be is re-assessed in the light of a novel idea: it is argued…
The rate of ionization by cosmic rays in interstellar gas directly associated with gamma-ray emitting supernova remnants is for the first time calculated to be several orders of magnitude larger than the Galactic average. Analysis of…
Assuming that refractory elements in cosmic rays originate in dust grains, we examine the viability of cosmic ray origin models wherein the bulk of present day cosmic rays are accelerated out of fresh supernova ejecta material before it…
In this chapter I give an overview of shock acceleration, including a discussion of the maximum energies possible and the shape of the spectrum near cut-off, interactions of high energy cosmic rays with, and propagation through, the…
We derive observational consequences of the hypothesis that cosmic rays (CR's) of energy $>10^{19}eV$ originate in the same cosmological objects producing gamma-ray bursts (GRB's). Inter-galactic magnetic fields $\gtrsim 10^{-12} G$ are…
Observations of TeV--PeV-energy cosmic neutrinos by the IceCube observatory have suggested that extragalactic cosmic-ray sources should have an optical depth greater than $\sim$0.01 and contribute to more than 10\% of the observed bulk of…
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…
Since more than a century we investigate cosmic particles coming from the Universe with the aim of understanding their nature, their origin and how they are accelerated. So far, cosmic rays have provided many impressive results, giving…
We shortly discuss several astrophysical scenarios leading to cosmic ray acceleration up to extremely high energies reaching the scale of 10^{20} eV. The processes suggested in the literature include acceleration at relativistic jet…
Although supernova remnants remain the main suspects as sources of Galactic cosmic rays up to the knee, the supernova paradigm still has many loose ends. The weakest point in this construction is the possibility that individual supernova…
The existence of cosmic rays of energies exceeding 10^20 eV is one of the mysteries of high energy astrophysics. The spectrum and the high energy to which it extends rule out almost all suggested source models. The challenges posed by…
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…
We revisit the idea that the Galactic center (GC) is the dominant source of Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), based on a series of new observational evidence. A unified model is proposed to explain the new phenomena of GCRs and $\gamma$-rays…
The origin of the ultrahigh-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) from the second knee ($\sim6\times10^{17}$eV) above in the CR spectrum is still unknown. Recently, there has been growing evidence that a peculiar type of supernovae, called…
In view of recent developments attention is directed again at two aspects of the well known 'knee' in the cosmic ray energy spectrum at 3 PeV: the mass of the predominant particles at this energy and their source. It is inevitable in a…