Cosmic rays: towards a consistent approach to a 12 orders-of-magnitude energy spectrum

by Etienne Parizot (Paris Diderot University)

Tuesday 20 Oct 2015, 13:15 → 15:00 Europe/Stockholm

FA31

One century after their discovery, the study of cosmic rays remains one of the most active research field in astrophysics. Their energy spectrum extends with a remarkable regularity over more than 12 orders of magnitude in energy, 32 orders of magnitude in flux, raising important observational as well as theoretical challenges Although they play a major role in the “ecology” of the Galaxy, their sources remain essentially unknown, and their acceleration mechanisms are also a subject of intense research, with implications for high-energy astrophysics and astroparticle physics in general. I will review some important aspects of the problem, and show how a global view over the entire spectrum, linking Galactic cosmic rays to extragalactic ones, can help addressing the main open questions regarding their phenomenology and constraining the astrophysical models. I will also present the current instrumental efforts to develop the study of the so-called ultra-high-energy cosmic rays through a space-based observatory, within the international EUSO collaboration. (host: Fugelsang)