Related papers: Identifying String Relics at AUGER?
Stable Superstring Relics (SSR) provide some of the candidates for the possible origin of the Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR). After a brief overview of the motivations for introducing such relics, we address the question whether…
Large scale airshower simulations around the GZK cutoff are performed. An extensive analysis of the behaviour of the various subcomponents of the cascade is presented. We focus our investigation both on the study of total and partial…
Despite the significant experimental effort made in the last decades, the origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays is still largely unknown. Key astrophysical information to identify where these energetic particles come from is provided…
The properties of cosmic rays with energies above 10**6 GeV have to be deduced from the spacetime structure and particle content of the air showers which they initiate. In this review we summarize the phenomenology of these giant air…
The composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is still poorly known and constitutes a very important topic in the field of high-energy astrophysics. Detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is carried out via the extensive air showers…
We apply statistical inference on the Pierre Auger Open Data to discern for the first time the full mass composition of cosmic rays at different energies. Working with longitudinal electromagnetic profiles of cosmic ray showers, in…
The interaction of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) with the atoms of the atmosphere can occur at center-of-mass energies that surpass 100 TeV, while present human-made accelerators go up to 13 TeV. Therefore it provides a unique…
Astroparticles offer a new path for research in the field of particle physics, allowing investigations at energies above those accesible with accelerators. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays can be studied via the observation of the showers they…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest energy messengers of the present universe, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV. Studies of astrophysical particles (nuclei, electrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed…
In this work we argue that, in the interpretation of the energy dependence of the depth of the shower maximum and of the muon content in high energy cosmic ray showers ($E > 10^{17}$ eV), other variables besides the composition may play an…
Air shower simulation programs are essential tools for the analysis of data from cosmic ray experiments and for planning the layout of new detectors. They are used to estimate the energy and mass of the primary particle. Unfortunately the…
Extensive air showers are complex objects, resulting of billions of particle reactions initiated by single cosmic ray at ultra-high-energy. Their characteristics are sensitive both to the mass of the primary cosmic ray and to the details of…
Firm evidence for a radio emission counterpart of cosmic ray air showers is presented. By the use of an antenna array set up in coincidence with ground particle detectors, we find a collection of events for which both time and arrival…
Observations of cosmic rays have been improving at all energies, with higher statistics and reduced systematics. Fundamental questions remain regarding the origins of cosmic rays both within the Galaxy and in extragalactic sources, and new…
We study the dependence of extensive air shower development on the first hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies occurring in the startup phase of the air shower cascade. The interpretation of standard air shower observables depends on…
Air showers, produced by the interaction of energetic cosmic rays with the atmosphere, are an excellent alternative to study particle physics at energies beyond any human-made particle accelerator. For that, it is necessary to identify…
The properties of cosmic rays with energies above 1PeV have to be deduced from the spacetime structure and particle content of the air showers which they initiate. In this review, a summary of the phenomenology of these giant air showers is…
We investigate the detection of exotic massive strongly interacting hadrons (uhecrons) in ultra high energy cosmic ray telescopes. The conclusion is that experiments such as the Pierre Auger Observatory have the potential to detect these…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays with energies above ~ 10^18 eV provide an unique window to study hadronic interactions at energies well above those achieved in the largest man-made accelerators. We argue that at those energies string…
The reconstruction of very inclined air showers is a new challenge for next-generation radio experiments such as the AugerPrime radio upgrade, BEACON, and GRAND, which focus on the detection of ultra-high-energy particles. To tackle this,…