Related papers: Longevity and Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays
Our Galaxy is the largest nuclear interaction experiment which we know, because of the interaction between cosmic ray particles and the interstellar material. Cosmic rays are particles, which have been accelerated in the Galaxy or in…
Cosmic ray story begins at the beginning of XX century. More then 100 years later, most of the main issues are still open questions, as sources, acceleration mechanism, propagation and composition. There is a continuing fascination with the…
We present the results of a new estimation of the photodisintegration and propagation of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHCR) nuclei in intergalactic space. The critical interactions for photodisintegration and energy loss of UHCR nuclei…
The spectra of high-energy protons and nuclei accelerated by supernova remnant shocks are calculated taking into account magnetic field amplification and Alfvenic drift both upstream and downstream of the shock for different types of…
We compute the ultra-high energy cosmic ray horizon, i.e. the distance up to which cosmic ray sources may significantly contribute to the fluxes above a certain threshold on the observed energies. We obtain results both for proton and heavy…
A calculation based on flat spacetime symmetries shows how there can be two quantum phases. For one, extreme phase change determines a conventional classical trajectory and four-momentum, i.e. mass times four-velocity. The other phase…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) can be a signal from very early (post-inflationary) Universe. At this cosmological epoch Topological Defects (TD) and long-lived suprheavy (SH) particles are expected to be naturally and effectively…
The highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic processes in the Universe. Their existence triggered a flurry of theoretical explanations ranging from…
Some recent experiments detecting very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays above 10-20 TeV independently reported VHE bursts for some of bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). If these signals are truly from GRBs, these GRBs must emit a much larger…
It is shown that the acceleration of particles by a powerful relativistic jet associated with the activity of a supermassive black hole in the Galactic center several million years ago may explain the observed cosmic ray spectrum at…
One of the models recently proposed to explain the origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays assumes that these particles may be accelerated by the electromotive force around presently inactive quasar remnants. We study predictions for…
The clustering of ultra high energy (above 5\cdot 10^{19} eV) cosmic rays (UHECR) suggests that they might be emitted by compact sources. We present a statistical analysis on the source density based on the multiplicities. The propagation…
In this article we examine the question of whether the highest energy cosmic ray primaries could be ultra relativistic magnetic monopoles. The analysis is performed within the framework of large compact dimensions and TeV scale quantum…
We analyze the existing evidence that BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) are sources of the highest-energy cosmic rays. We argue that three independent signatures observed in the real data -- (1) improvement of correlations with corrections of…
The origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays via annihilation of heavy stable, fermions "f", of the cosmological dark matter (DM) is studied. The particles in question are supposed to be created by the scalaron decays in $R^2$ modified…
We discuss the most recent developments in our understanding of the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays up to the highest energies. In particular we specialize our discussion to three issues: 1) developments in the theory of…
Since their first observation in 1962, the existence of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) remains a mystery in modern astrophysics. Those cosmic rays, with energies well above 50 EeV ($50\times 10^{18}$eV), can hardly be accelerated,…
We determine the probability that an ultrahigh energy (above 5\cdot 10^{19} eV) proton created at a distance r with energy E arrives at earth above a threshold E_c. The clustering of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays suggests that they might be…
The propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in extragalactic magnetic fields can be diffusive, depending on the strength and properties of the fields. In some cases the propagation time of the particles can be comparable to the age of…
This paper begins with a pedagogical discussion of the propagation of cosmic rays and the showers produced when a cosmic ray primary hits the upper atmosphere. The paper focusses cosmic rays, with energy > 10^19 eV. Emphasis is placed on…