Related papers: TOPOLOGICAL DEFECTS AND HIGHEST ENERGY COSMIC AND …
Diffuse ultrahigh energy gamma-radiation can arise from a variety of astrophysical sources, including the interaction of extremely high energy cosmic rays with the 3K microwave background radiation or the collapse of topological defects…
Observations of cosmic rays with energies above ~ 4 x 10^{10} GeV have inspired several speculative suggestions concerning their origin. The crucial question is whether or not the spectrum exhibits the expected `GZK cutoff' at this energy…
The apparent lack of suitable astrophysical sources for cosmic rays with E > 10^{19.7} eV (UHECRs) is the "GZK Paradox". We argue that whatever mechanism produces them must also account for events down to ~10^{18.7} eV, including their…
The production of ultra high-energy cosmic rays in de Sitter invariant vacuum states is considered. Assuming the present-day universe is asymptoting toward a future de Sitter phase, we argue the observed flux of cosmic rays places a bound…
Nature produces cosmic ray particles, probably protons, with energies well above $10^{20}$ eV -- how are they produced? Where do they come from? Gamma rays with energies above $10^{13}$ eV are produced in jets of active galaxies -- are…
Nearby sources of cosmic rays up to a ZeV(=10^21 eV) could be observed with a multi-messenger approach including secondary gamma-rays and neutrinos. If cosmic rays above ~10^18 eV are produced in magnetized environments such as galaxy…
Topological defects are produced during phase transitions in the very early Universe. They arise in most unified theories of strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions. These lectures focus on the role of topological defects in…
A scenario in which cosmic rays (CRs) above $10^{20}{\rm eV}$ are produced by cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is consistent with observations provided that deflections by the inter-galactic magnetic field (IGMF) delay and spread the…
We obtain the horizontal air shower rate from the (EeV) high energy neutrino flux predicted in some topological defect scenarios as the source for the highest energy cosmic rays. Emphasis is made on the different character of the events…
Cosmological phase transitions accompanied by some kind of symmetry breaking would cause the creation of topological defects and the resulting production of primordial magnetic field. Moreover, such a procedure inevitably affects the cosmic…
It is presumed that the observed cosmic rays up to about $3\times 10^{18}$ eV are of Galactic origin, the particles being the ones which are found in the composition of the stellar winds of stars that explode as supernova into the…
It is proposed that the highest energy $\sim 10^{20}$eV cosmic ray primaries are protons, decay products of a long-lived progenitor which has propagated from typically $\sim 100$Mpc. Such a scenario can occur in e.g. SU(15) grand…
We study the possibility that the gamma ray emission in the Fermi bubbles observed is produced by cosmic ray electrons with a spectrum similar to Galactic cosmic rays. We argue that the cosmic ray electrons steepen near 1 TeV from $E^{-3}$…
Different types of extragalactic objects are known to produce TeV gamma-rays. Some of these objects are the most probable candidates to accelerate cosmic rays up to 10^20 eV. It is very well known that gamma-rays can be produced as a result…
It is proposed that the highest energy $\sim 10^{20}$eV cosmic ray primaries are protons, decay products of a long-lived progenitor whose high kinetic energy arises from decay of a distant (cosmological) superheavy particle, G. Such a…
Recent measurements of cosmic ray electron energy spectra suggest that above 10 GeV there may be deviations from a single power law spectrum. There are hints (ATIC) for a bump occurring between 100 GeV and 1TeV, meaning that there might be…
Topological defects are ubiquitous in physics. Whenever a symmetry breaking phase transition occurs, topological defects may form. The best known examples are vortex lines in type II super conductors or in liquid Helium, and declination…
Recent results from the Pierre Auger Observatory are presented, focusing on a measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above 10^18 eV, cosmic-ray composition, and the anisotropy in the cosmic ray arrival directions. The flux of cosmic…
The origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays remains a mystery. The lack of a high energy cutoff in the cosmic ray spectrum together with an apparently isotropic distribution of arrival directions have strongly constrained most models…
The flux of high energy cosmic rays coming from the decay of vortons is estimated. If the abundance of loops corresponding to a superconductivity scale coincident with that of the string formation is corrected to be compatible with the…