Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays

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Exotic Mechanisms

Other ideas for explaining the existence of UHE cosmic rays include:

  • Top-Down" Models:
    Decay or annihilation of some super-heavy particles or cosmological relics {e.g. topological defects, relic magnetic monopoles.)
  • Acceleration in Catastrophic events
  • Gamma ray bursts
  • New Physics?

Selected References

  1. Fermi, E. Phys. Rev., 75, 1169 (1949).
  2. Axelford, W. I., Leer, E., and Skadron, G. Proc. 15th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 11, 132 (1977).
  3. Krymsky, G. F. Dok. Acad. Nauk. USSR, 234, 1306 (1977).
  4. Bell, A. R. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 182, 147 (1978).
  5. Blandford, R.D. and Ostriker, J. P. Astrophys. J., 221, L29 (1978)
  6. Longhair, M. S., Chapter 21 of High Energy Astrophysics Vol. 2, 2nd Ed. Cambridge University Press (1994).