Related papers: Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays
The origin of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is a half-century old enigma (Linsley 1963). The mystery has been deepened by an intriguing coincidence: over ten orders of magnitude in energy, the energy generation rates of UHECRs, PeV…
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…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are atomic nuclei from space with vastly higher energies than any other particles ever observed. Their origin and chemical composition remain a mystery. As we show here, the large- and…
We explore two generic hypotheses for tracing the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) in the Universe: star formation rate density or stellar mass density. For each scenario, we infer a set of constraints for the emission…
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…
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…
Two of the greatest mysteries of modern physics are the origin of the dark matter in the universe and the nature of the highest energy particles in the cosmic ray spectrum. We discuss here possible direct and indirect connections between…
Several explanations for the existence of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) invoke the idea that they originate from the decay of massive particles created in the reheating following inflation. It has been suggested that the decay…
Origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays is an unsolved problem. Several proposals such as Z-burst, decay of super massive matter, susy particles as a primary, neutrino as a primary in extra dimension models exist in the literature which try…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) hit the Earth's atmosphere with energies exceeding $10^{18}$ eV. This is the same energy as carried by a tennis ball moving at 100 km/h, but concentrated on a sub-atomic particle. UHECRs are so rare…
Cosmic rays with energies beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin `cutoff' at $\sim 4 \times 10^{10}$ GeV pose a conundrum, the solution of which requires either drastic revision of our astrophysical understanding, or new physics beyond the…
Since astrophysical neutrinos are produced in the interactions of cosmic rays, identifying the origin of cosmic rays using directional correlations with neutrinos is one of the most interesting possibilities of the field. For that purpose,…
We explore scenarios where the highest energy cosmic rays (HECR) are produced by new particle physics near the grand unification scale. Using detailed numerical simulations of extragalactic cosmic and gamma-ray propagation, we show the…
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…
We investigate the possibility that ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) originate from the annihilation of relic superheavy (SH) dark matter in the Galactic halo. In order to fit the data on UHECRs, a cross section of $<\sigma_Av>\sim…
The clustering of ultra high energy (above 5\cdot 10^{19} eV) cosmic rays (UHECR) suggests that they might be emitted by compact sources. We present a statistical analysis on the source density based on the multiplicities. The propagation…
The decay of very heavy metastable relics of the Early Universe can produce ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) in the halo of our own Galaxy. On distance scales of the order of the halo size, energy losses are negligible---no…
The physics of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays will be reviewed, discussing the latest experimental results and theoretical models aiming at explaining the observations in terms of spectra, mass composition and possible sources. It will be…
We review the experimental evidences about flux and mass composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays in connection with theoretical scenarios concerning astrophysical sources. In this context, we also address the discussion about the…
The lack of a high energy cutoff in the cosmic ray spectrum together with an apparently isotropic distribution of arrival directions for the highest energy events have strongly constrained most models proposed for the generation of these…