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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…
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…
Dark matter particles need not be completely stable, and in fact they may be decaying now. We consider this possibility in the frameworks of universal extra dimensions and supersymmetry with very late decays of WIMPs to Kaluza-Klein…
Ultra-high energy (UHE) photons above 10^{18} eV serve as valuable probes of fundamental physics. While typically produced in interactions involving charged particles, they could also originate from exotic sources such as annihilations of…
Cosmic ray particles with energies in excess of 10**(20) eV have been detected. The sources as well as the physical mechanism(s) responsible for endowing cosmic ray particles with such enormous energies are unknown. This report gives a…
It has been argued that the observations of cosmic particles with energies in excess of $10^8$ TeV represent a puzzle. Its solution requires new astrophysics or new particle physics. We show that the latter is unlikely given that the scale…
The most energetic particles ever detected exceed $10^{20}$ eV in energy. Their existence represents at the same time a great challenge for particle physics and astrophysics, and a great promise of providing us for a probe of the validity…
The possibility that the Fermi scale is the only fundamental energy scale of Nature is under serious consideration at present, yet cosmic rays may already have provided direct evidence of new physics at a much higher scale. The recent…
A possibility of existence of ultra-heavy (quasi)stable particles, mechanisms leading to their large life-time, their production in the early universe, and cosmological manifestations are reviewed.
The bulk of observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays could be light or heavier elements, and originate from an either steady or transient population of sources. This leaves us with four general categories of sources. Energetic requirements set…
The detection of cosmic rays with energy around and in excess of $10^{20}$ eV raises many questions that future experiments will help answering to. I address here my view of some of these open issues, as they are now and as they might be…
We discuss recent models in which neutrinos, which are assumed to have mass in the eV range, originate the highest energy cosmic rays by interaction with the enhanced density in the galactic halo of the relic cosmic neutrino background. We…
Recent measurements of the properties of cosmic rays above 10^17 eV are summarized and implications on our contemporary understanding of their origin are discussed. Cosmic rays with energies exceeding 10^20 eV have been measured, they are…
It is commonly accepted that high energy cosmic rays up to $10^{19}$ eV can be produced in catastrophic astrophysical processes. However the source of a few observed events with higher energies remains mysterious. We propose that they may…
A re-examination of the energy cosmic ray spectrum above $10^{20}$ eV is presented. The overall data-base provides evidence, albeit still statistically limited, that non-nucleon primaries could be present at the end of the spectrum. In…
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…
The origin of cosmic ray events with $E \gsim 10^{11}$ GeV remains mysterious. In this talk I briefly summarize several proposed particle physics explanations: a breakdown of Lorentz invariance, the ``$Z-$burst'' scenario, new hadrons with…
The topological defect scenario of origin of the observed highest energy cosmic rays is reviewed. Under a variety of circumstances, topological defects formed in the early Universe can be sources of very massive particles in the Universe…
The observation of twenty cosmic-ray air-showers at and above 10^{20} eV poses fascinating problems for particle astrophysics: how the primary particles are accelerated to these energies, how the primaries get here through the 2.7K…
We discuss new ideas that the Standard Model might be emergent with connection to electroweak vacuum stability and related consequences for cosmology. In this scenario, the gauge symmetries and particles of the Standard Model would be…