Related papers: Highest Energy Cosmic Rays
We will discuss the main relevant aspects of the physics of ultra high energy cosmic rays. After a short recap of the experimental evidences, we will review theoretical models aiming at describing the sources of these extremely energetic…
It has been speculated that the recently detected ultra-high energy cosmic rays may originate from the decays of relic particles with mass of order $10^{12}$ GeV clustered in the halo of our Galaxy. This hypothesis can be tested through…
Cosmic ray (CR) particles arrive at the top of the Earth's atmosphere at a rate of around 1000 per square meter per second. They are mostly ionized nuclei - about 90% protons, 9% alpha particles traces of heavier nuclei and approximately 1%…
Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are the most energetic of any subatomic particles ever observed in nature. The quest for their mysterious origin is currently a major scientific challenge. Here we explore the possibility that these particles…
High-energy cosmic ray events present important challenges to particle astrophysics. Their nature and origin are often not well understood and, as they occur in an energy domain not accessible to particle accelerators, there is no clear…
In this article we examine the hypothesis that the highest energy cosmic rays are complex nuclei from extragalactic sources. Under reasonable physical assumptions, we show that the nearby metally rich starburst galaxies (M82 and NGC 253)…
We study the deflection of ultra high energy cosmic ray protons in different models of the regular galactic magnetic field. Such particles have gyroradii well in excess of 1 kpc and their propagation in the galaxy reflects only the large…
A brief review of the energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays above $10^{10}$ eV and the measurement techniques used to investigate the ultra high energy ones is given. This is followed by a discussion of the atmospheric shower profile of…
I give a brief review of high energy gamma-ray signatures of dark matter. The decay of massive $X$-particles and subsequent hadronization have been suggested as the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays. Propagation over cosmological…
The highest energy cosmic rays could be produced by drifts in magnetized, cylindrically collimated, sheared jets of powerful active galaxies (i.e. FR II radiogalaxies; radio loud quasars and high power BL Lacs). We show that in such…
A re-examination of the atmospheric cascade profile of the highest energy cosmic ray is presented. The study includes air-shower simulations considering different cross sections, particle multiplicity and variation of the…
The origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays remains elusive. The decay of a superheavy particle (X) into an ultra-energetic neutrino which scatters from a relic (anti-)neutrino at the Z-resonance has attractive features. Given the…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved astrophysical questions. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic…
Top-down models of cosmic rays produce more neutrinos than photons and more photons than protons. In these models, we reevaluate the fluxes of neutrinos associated with the highest energy cosmic rays in light of mounting evidence that they…
We give an overview over models in which cosmic rays above 1 EeV = 10**(18) eV are produced by the decay of supermassive "X" particles released from topological defects possibly created in cosmological phase transitions. We note that, for…
We propose a model in which ultra high energy cosmic rays are produced by collisions between neutron stars and axion stars. The acceleration of such a cosmic ray is made by the electric field, $\sim 10^{15} (B/10^{12} {G}) {eV} {cm}^{-1}$,…
The origin of highest energy cosmic rays (UHECR) is yet unknown. In order to understand their propagation we determine the probability that an ultrahigh energy (above 5\cdot 10^{19} eV) proton created at a distance r with energy E arrives…
Cosmic-rays with energies exceeding 10^{19} eV are referred to as Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). The sources of these particles and their acceleration mechanism are unknown, and for many years have been the issue of much debate.…
Observation of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) -whose energy exceeds $10^20$eV- is still a puzzle for modern astrophysics. The transfer of more than 16 Joules to a microscopic particle can hardly be achieved, even in the most powerful…
We analyze the spectrum of the ultrahigh energy (above \approx 10^{9} GeV) cosmic rays. With a maximum likelihood analysis we show that the observed spectrum is consistent with the decay of extragalactic GUT scale particles. The predicted…