Related papers: Cosmic ray ionization of the interstellar medium

We investigate the injection spectrum of ultra-high-energy (>10^{15} eV) cosmic rays under the hypotheses that (1) these cosmic rays are protons and (2) the sources of these cosmic rays are extra-galactic and are homogeneously distributed…

Cosmic rays in the energy range from about 10's GeV to several 100's TeV are observed on Earth with an energy-dependent anisotropy of order 0.01-0.1%, and a consistent topology that appears to significantly change at higher energy. The…

The propagation of cosmic iron nuclei with energies above 10^19 eV from their sources to the Galaxy is discussed by assuming that cosmic rays at ultra-high energies are of extragalactic origin. In extragalactic space, cosmic nuclei interact…

A measurement with high statistics of the differential energy spectrum of light elements in cosmic rays, in particular, of primary H plus He nuclei, is reported. The spectrum is presented in the energy range from $6$ to $158$ TeV per…

String unification at a scale of a few tens of TeV explains the existence of cosmic ray interactions beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff. Trans-GZK cosmic rays are neutrinos which can penetrate the cosmic microwave background.…

Growing evidence reveals universal hardening on various cosmic ray spectra, e.g. proton, positron, as well as antiproton fraction. Such universality may indicate they have a common origin. In this paper, we argue that these widespread…

We present a new measurement of the energy spectrum of iron nuclei in cosmic rays from 20 to 500 TeV. The measurement makes use of a template-based analysis method, which, for the first time, is applied to the energy reconstruction of…

The study of the interactions of Cosmic Rays (CR's) with universal diffuse background radiation can provide very stringent tests of the validity of Special Relativity. The interactions we consider are the ones characterized by well defined…

Molecular clouds are expected to emit non-thermal radiation due to cosmic ray interactions in the dense magnetized gas. Such emission is amplified if a cloud is located close to an accelerator of cosmic rays and if cosmic rays can leave the…

Low-energy (~MeV) cosmic rays (CRs) ionize molecular clouds and create the neutral iron line (Fe I K\alpha) at 6.4 keV. On the other hand, high-energy (>~ GeV) CRs interact with the dense cloud gas and produce gamma rays. Based on a…

This is a summary of a series of lectures on the current experimental and theoretical status of our understanding of origin and nature of cosmic radiation. Specific focus is put on ultra-high energy cosmic radiation above ~10^17 eV,…

Cosmic rays are the highest energy particles found in nature. Measurements of the mass composition of cosmic rays between 10^{17} eV and 10^{18} eV are essential to understand whether this energy range is dominated by Galactic or…

Charged cosmic rays have been measured up to macroscopic energies. Concerning neutrinos, the detection is still limited to terrestrial ones (apart from supernova production). A new way to search for extragalactic neutrinos is discussed.

Measurements of the low energy spectrum of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) by detectors at or near the Earth are affected by Solar modulation. To overcome this difficulty, we consider nearby molecular clouds as GCR detectors outside the Solar…

The propagation of gamma-rays over cosmological distances is the subject of extensive theoretical and observational research at GeV and TeV energies. The mean free path of gamma-rays in the cosmic web is limited above 100 GeV due to the…

In this paper, we have provided an overview of cosmic ray effects on terrestrial processes such as electrical properties, global electric circuit, lightning, cloud formation, cloud coverage, atmospheric temperature, space weather phenomena,…

Cosmic rays have been shown to be extremely important in the dynamics of diffuse gas in galaxies, helping to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium, and serving as a regulating force in star formation. In this paper, we address the influence of…

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…

A fundamental problem of cosmic ray (CR) physics is the determination of the average properties of Galactic CRs outside the Solar system. Starting from COS-B data in the 1980's, gamma-ray observations of molecular clouds in the Gould Belt…

It is shown that Eddington-like accretion event in the Galactic center several million years ago and particle acceleration at accompanying shocks and jets could explain the observed cosmic ray spectrum at energies above 1 PeV. Cosmic ray…