Related papers: Cosmic rays and antishadowing
The search for the origin of cosmic rays is as active as ever, mainly driven by new insights provided by recent pieces of observation. Much effort is being channelled in putting the so called supernova paradigm for the origin of galactic…
In the cosmic ray spectrum, there are two knees (abrupt changes of slopes) located around the energies $E_{th}=10^{15.5}$ eV and $10^{17.8}$ eV respectively. Based on the pioneering work by Kostelecky and Ehrlich, we ascribe the first knee…
After a brief review of galactic cosmic rays in the GeV to TeV energy range, we describe some current problems of interest for particles of very high energy. Particularly interesting are two features of the spectrum, the `knee' above…
Scenarios in which the knee of the cosmic ray spectrum depends on the particle rigidities usually predict that the cosmic ray composition becomes heavier above the knee and have associated a change in the spectral slope of each individual…
The general features of the cosmic-ray spectrum have been known for a long time. Although the basic approaches to understanding cosmic-ray propagation and acceleration have also been well understood for many years, there are several…
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…
Cosmic rays around the so-called knee in the spectrum at around PeV primary energy are generally galactic in origin. Observations on the form of their energy spectrum and their mass composition are fundamental tools to understand the…
Assuming that cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere contain a small admixture of nuggets of strange quark matter in form of strangelets one can explain a number of apparently "strange" effects observed in different cosmic rays…
Results from the KASCADE air shower experiment investigating the origin of cosmic rays in the energy region from 10^13 to 10^17 eV are presented. Attention is drawn on the investigation of interactions in the atmosphere and the energy…
The recent success of a proposal from some time ago to explain the spectrum of cosmic rays allows some strong conclusions to be made on the physics of supernovae: In the context of this specific proposal to explain the origin of cosmic…
Cosmic rays physics is currently being studied with rather sophisticated detectors running in a variety of experimental conditions and atmospheric depths around the world. In this paper we describe the reasons why cosmic ray physics…
The energy spectrum of cosmic rays (CR) exhibits power-like behavior with a very characteristic "knee" structure. We consider a possibility that such a spectrum could be generated by some specific nonstatistical temperature fluctuations in…
The differential energy spectrum of the cosmic radiation from solar modulation energies up to 5x10**19 eV is correctly predicted by a recent theory of the knee and ankle which uses only one normalization point. This remarkable quantitative…
Our purpose is to evaluate the rate of the maximum energy and the acceleration rate that cosmic rays acquire in the non-relativistic diffusive shock acceleration as it could apply during their lifetime in various astrophysical sites, where…
The energy spectrum of cosmic rays between 10**16 eV and 10**18 eV, derived from measurements of the shower size (total number of charged particles) and the total muon number of extensive air showers by the KASCADE-Grande experiment, is…
Two structures in the all-particle energy spectrum of cosmic rays, the knee at 4 PeV and the second knee around 400 PeV are proposed to be explained by a phenomenological model, the poly gonato model, connecting direct and indirect…
Galactic cosmic rays are believed to be accelerated at supernova remnants via diffusive shock acceleration. Though this mechanism gives fairly robust predictions for the spectrum of particles accelerated at the shock, the spectrum of the…
New results of an analysis of arrival directions of extensive air showers registered with the EAS--1000 Prototype array from August 1997 till February 1999 are presented. The method of Alexandreas et al., which has been used for analysis of…
A sudden steepening of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum (the knee) is observed at an energy of about 3 PeV (1 PeV = $10^{15}$ eV). The experimental study of the PeV cosmic rays has intensified greatly during the last 3 years. The recent…
The analysis of cosmic rays fluxes as a function of energy reveals a {\it knee} slightly below $10^{16}$ eV and an {\it ankle} close to $10^{19}$ eV. Their physical origins remain up to now quite enigmatic; in particular, no elementary…