Related papers: Galactic Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
Even 100 years after the discovery of cosmic rays their origin remains a mystery. In recent years, TeV gamma-ray detectors have discovered and investigated many Galactic sources where particles are accelerated up to energies of 100 TeV.…
Several lines of evidence point to a relationship between gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the high mass stars that explode as supernovae. Arguments that GRB sources accelerate cosmic rays (CRs) are summarized. High-energy neutrino detection…
Ultrahigh energy neutrons and pions are likely to be produced in particle interactions inside cosmic ray sources and subsequently decay to neutrinos and other secondary particles ($\pi^\pm \rightarrow \mu^\pm\nu_\mu(\bar \nu_\mu),\mu^\pm…
One prediction of particle acceleration in the supernova remnants in the magnetic wind of exploding Wolf Rayet and Red Super Giant stars is that the final spectrum is a composition of a spectrum $E^{-7/3}$ and a polar cap component of…
Using data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory during the past 3.7 years, we demonstrated a correlation between the arrival directions of cosmic rays with energy above ~ 6x10^{19} electron volts and the positions of active galactic…
We show that the secondary electrons ejected from the ionization of heavy ions can be injected into the acceleration process that occurs at supernova remnant shocks. This electron injection mechanism works since ions are ionized during the…
We propose that ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are produced in binary neutron star mergers. This scenario can account for the heretofore inexplicable narrow rigidity range of UHECRs, because the jets of BNS mergers are generated by a…
Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), formed when the wind originating from a rapidly rotating neutron star flows out into its surroundings, have now been observed across the electromagnetic spectrum from the radio to the PeV gamma-ray regime. For…
A simple model is exhibited in which the remnant density of charged vortons is used to provide candidates for explaining the observed ultra high energy cosmic rays (above $10^{20}$ eV). These vortons would be accelerated in active galaxies…
Combined recent data from cosmic-ray detectors and gamma-ray detectors have produced some surprising insights regarding the sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), magnetic fields inside and outside the Milky Way, and the…
The existence of cosmic rays of energies exceeding 10^20 eV is one of the mysteries of high energy astrophysics. The spectrum and the high energy to which it extends rule out almost all suggested source models. The challenges posed by…
The wealth of data collected in the last few years thanks to the Pierre Auger Observatory and recently to the Telescope Array made the problem of the origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays a genuinely experimental/observational one. The…
It is shown that bulk acceleration during reconnection of extremely strong magnetic fields near compact objects can accelerate ions to Lorentz factors of $\sim 10^2 \sigma^{3/5}$ under general conditions, where $\sigma$, the magnetic energy…
The origin of the particles in the highest energy end of the cosmic ray spectrum is discussed in the context of the wider problem of the origin of the whole cosmic radiation as observed at the Earth. In particular we focus our attention on…
The current status of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) is reviewed, with emphasis given to theoretical interpretation of the observed events. The galactic and extragalactic origin, in case of astrophysical sources of UHE particles,…
The undisputed galactic origin of cosmic rays at energies below the so-called knee implies an existence of a nonthemal population of galactic objects which effectively accelerate protons and nuclei to TeV-PeV energies. The distinct…
A complete model for the origin of high-energy >~10^{14} eV) cosmic rays from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and implications of this hypothesis are described. Detection of high-energy neutrinos from GRBs provide an unambiguous test of the model.…
Auger data show evidence for a correlation between ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and nearby starburst galaxies. This intriguing correlation is consistent with data collected by the Telescope Array, which have revealed a much more…
We introduce neutrino astronomy starting from the observational fact that Nature accelerates protons and photons to energies in excess of 10^{20} and 10^{13} eV, respectively. Although the discovery of cosmic rays dates back a century, we…
We propose a new hypothesis for the origin of non-solar hadronic cosmic rays (CRs) at all energies: Highly relativistic, narrowly collimated jets from the birth or collapse of neutron stars (NSs) in our Galaxy accelerate ambient disk and…