Galactic Cosmic Rays - Theory and Interpretation

The arguments surrounding the Galactic component of the cosmic rays, the energy budget, questions of composition, spectral features, anisotropy, sources etc, will be critically examined. We are moving into a new phase in the study of the Galactic cosmic rays where it is becoming clear that precision measurements are revealing new, and in some cases unexpected, features which are forcing us to develop more sophisticated models for their production and propagation. The fundamental concepts however appear to be quite solid and have changed remarkably little in the more than fifty years since Ginzburg and Syrovatskii's classic "The Origin of Cosmic Rays".