Related papers: Non-linear quantum mechanics and high energy cosmi…
We discuss possible violations of Poincare's relativity principle at energy scales close to Planck scale and point out the potentialities of high-energy cosmic-ray physics to uncover these new phenomena.
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…
It is not yet clear whether the observed flux suppression for ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) at energies above \simeq 4.10E19 eV is a signature of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff or corresponds, for instance, to the maximum…
The origin and nature of ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray events, above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff energy, constitute a long-standing, unsolved mistery. Neutrinos are proposed candidates but their standard interactions with matter…
Ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) pose a problem either for particle physics or for astrophysics (or for both) by the unexpectedly high number of cosmic ray showers observed with energy above about 5x10^{19}eV, the…
Recent observations on ultra high energy cosmic rays (those cosmic rays with energies greater than $\sim 4 \times 10^{18}$ eV) suggest an abundant flux of incoming particles with energies above $1 \times 10^{20}$ eV. These observations…
Although cosmic rays were discovered 90 years ago, we do not know how and where they are accelerated. There is compelling evidence that the highest energy cosmic rays are extra-galactic -- they cannot be contained by our galaxy's magnetic…
Cosmic high energy neutrinos are inextricably linked to the origin of cosmic rays which is one of the major unresolved questions in astrophysics. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their…
It is now widely acknowledged that cosmic rays experiments can test possible new physics directly generated at the Planck scale or at some other fundamental scale. By studying particle properties at energies far beyond the reach of any…
We summarize our investigations of the second-order perturbations in loop quantum cosmology (LQC). We shall discuss, primarily, two aspects. Firstly, whether the second-order contributions arising from the cosmic bounce, occurring at Planck…
We propose that the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays beyond the GZK cutoff and the origin of small cosmological constant can both be explained by vacuum tunneling effects in a theory with degenerate vacua and fermionic doublets. By…
Contrary to expectations, several cosmic ray events with energies above $10^{20}$ eV have been observed. The flux of such events is well above the predicted Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff due to the pion production (via the $\Delta$…
The clustering of ultra high energy cosmic ray events suggests that they have originated from compact sources. One of the possible physical mechanisms by which ultra high energy nuclei reach the Earth from far away astrophysical sources…
The study of high energy cosmic rays is a diversified field of observational and phenomenological physics addressing questions ranging from shock acceleration of charged particles in various astrophysical objects, via transport properties…
We show that estimates of the Lorentz symmetry violation extracted from ultra-high energy cosmic rays beyond the GZK cut-off set bounds on the parameters of a Lorentz-violating extension of the Standard Model. Moreover, we argue that…
The origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays remains a mystery. The lack of a high energy cutoff in the cosmic ray spectrum together with an apparently isotropic distribution of arrival directions have strongly constrained most models…
We review a possible framework for (non)linear quantum theories, into which linear quantum mechanics fits as well, and discuss the notion of ``equivalence'' in this setting. Finally, we draw the attention to persisting severe problems of…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved questions in astrophysics. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely associated with the most energetic processes…
The neutron fraction in the very high energy cosmic rays near the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff energy is analyzed by taking into account the time dilation effect of the neutron decays and also the pion photoproduction behaviors…
We propose that local Lorentz invariance is spontaneously violated at high energies, due to a nonvanishing vacuum expectation value of a vector field \phi^\mu, as a possible explanation of the observation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays…