Related papers: Cosmic Rays: Recent Progress and some Current Ques…
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…
Supernova remnants (SNRs) have long been assumed to be the source of cosmic rays (CRs) up to the "knee" of the CR spectrum at 10^15 eV, accelerating particles to relativistic energies in their blast waves by the process of diffusive shock…
I develop a theory to account for the cosmic ray spectrum. The essential assumption is that, due to fast convective motions, the free mean path perpendicular to the magnetic field is independent of energy and has the scale of the thickness…
An overview is given on the present status of the understanding of the origin of galactic cosmic rays. Recent measurements of charged cosmic rays and photons are reviewed. Their impact on the contemporary knowledge about the sources and…
An update of the status of the knee in the cosmic ray energy spectrum at 3-4 PeV is presented. We argue that the evidence in favour of the presence of a 'single source' is even stronger than before.
The existence of the spectral break around $\sim 3 \times 10^{15}$ eV in the cosmic ray spectrum (referred to as the `knee') is one of the biggest questions in cosmic ray astrophysics. At the same time, the origin of cosmic rays above the…
While from the energetic point of view SNRs are viable sources of Galactic CRs, the issue of whether they can accelerate protons up to PeV remains unsolved. Here we discuss particle acceleration at the forward shock of SN and discuss the…
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 ($3 \times 10^{18}$…
Young supernova remnants are thought to be the sites where cosmic ray acceleration occurs by the mechanism of diffusive shock acceleration. The maximum energy gained in this process is conventionally extimated to have a value close to, but…
In a comprehensive model of Cosmic Rays (CRs) proposed a decade ago, the energies of the spectral "knees" of the various CR species were predicted to be proportional to mass, rather than charge. The model also predicts the knees to occur at…
A rapidly growing amount of evidences, mostly coming from the recent gamma-ray observations of Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs), is seriously challenging our understanding of how particles are accelerated at fast shocks. The cosmic-ray…
We have developed a model that explains cosmic rays with energies E between \~0.3 PeV and the energy of the second knee at E_2 ~ 3*10^{17} eV as originating from a recent Galactic gamma-ray burst (GRB) that occurred ~1 Myr ago within 1 kpc…
Cosmic rays around the so-called knee in the spectrum at around PeV primary energy are generally galactic in origin. Observations on the form of their energy spectrum and their mass composition are fundamental tools to understand the…
We analyze the possibility that the cosmic ray knee appears at an energy threshold where the proton-dark matter cross section becomes large due to new TeV physics. It has been shown that such interactions could break the proton and produce…
Some new developments obtained in the last few years concerning the propagation of high energy cosmic rays are discussed. In particular, it is shown how the inclusion of drift effects in the transport diffusion equations leads naturally to…
The search for the origin of cosmic rays is as active as ever, mainly driven by new insights provided by recent pieces of observation. Much effort is being channelled in putting the so called supernova paradigm for the origin of galactic…
In this paper we review the main features of the observed Cosmic Rays spectrum in the energy range $10^{17} {\rm eV}~\div~10^{20} {\rm eV}$. We present a theoretical model that explains the main observed features of the spectrum, namely the…
The most recent experimental results on the cosmic ray composition and energy spectrum above 1 TeV are reviewed and discussed. All data agree on the presence of the so-called ``knee'' at an energy E(knee) = 3-4 PeV; the knee is seen in all…
The diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission was measured up to $957$ TeV by the Tibet-AS$\gamma$ experiment recently. Assuming that it is produced by the hadronic interaction between cosmic ray nuclei and the interstellar medium, it requires that 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…