相关论文: Cosmic Rays and Terrestrial Life: A Brief Review
Despite great advances in our understanding of the formation of the Solar System, the evolution of the Earth, and the chemical basis for life, we are not much closer than the ancient Greeks to an answer of whether life has arisen and…
Gamma-ray bursts are short-lived, luminous explosions at cosmological distances, thought to originate from relativistic jets launched at the deaths of massive stars. They are among the prime candidates to produce the observed cosmic rays at…
We briefly review the main channels of gamma ray and neutrino production due to the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays. We show how the observations of these secondary radiations are of paramount importance in tagging mass…
A calculation based on flat spacetime symmetries shows how there can be two quantum phases. For one, extreme phase change determines a conventional classical trajectory and four-momentum, i.e. mass times four-velocity. The other phase…
The origin and nature of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are still unknown. However, great progress has been achieved in past years due to the observations performed by the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. Above…
In this report we review the important progress made in recent years towards understanding the experimental data on ultra-high-energy ($E \gtrsim 10^9$ GeV) cosmic rays. We begin with a general survey of the available data, including a…
It is argued that there are three `origins' of cosmic rays; the origin of the particles, the origin of the energy, and the site of the acceleration. The evidence for each origin is discussed and a plausible synthesis outlined for the…
High-energy cosmic rays, impinging on the atmosphere of the Earth initiate cascades of secondary particles, the extensive air showers. The electrons and positrons in the air shower emit electromagnetic radiation. This emission is detected…
Cosmic rays produce molecular cluster ions as they pass through the lower atmosphere. Neutral molecular clusters such as dimers and complexes are expected to make a small contribution to the radiative balance, but atmospheric absorption by…
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 show that a tiny but non-zero positive cosmological constant, which has been strongly suggested by the recent astronomical observations on supernovae and CMBR, may change notably the behaviors of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray…
We describe results of modeling the effects on Earth-like planets of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) within a few kiloparsecs. A primary effect is generation of nitrogen oxide compounds which deplete ozone. Ozone depletion leads to an…
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…
By now there is substantial evidence that Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) originate at cosmological distances from very powerful explosions. The interaction between a GRB and its surrounding environment has dramatic consequences on the environment…
A key question in astronomy is how ubiquitous Earth-like rocky planets are. The formation of terrestrial planets in our solar system was strongly influenced by the radioactive decay heat of short-lived radionuclides (SLRs), particularly…
The aim of the present work is to study the potential short-term atmospheric and biospheric influence of Gamma Ray Bursts on the Earth. We focus in the ultraviolet flash at the planet's surface, which occurs as a result of the…
Interactions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with background photons set a limit to the distance cosmic rays reaching us above a certain energy can originate from, making measurements of their fluxes insensitive to properties of sources at…
Solar flare observations are used to demonstrate the new technique of abundance determination based on gamma ray line emission produced by accelerated particle bombardment. Some of the implications of similar gamma ray line emission…
Our Universe is described jointly by Einstein's relativity principle and the quantum principle; there the existence of the smallest units of matter, such as electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and photons, is well established and the smallest…
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…