Cosmic Rays at the highest energies

Angela V. Olinto

Published 2012-01-21, updated 2012-03-15Version 2

After a century of observations, we still do not know the origin of cosmic rays. I will review the current state of cosmic ray observations at the highest energies, and their implications for proposed acceleration models and secondary astroparticle fluxes. Possible sources have narrowed down with the confirmation of a GZK-like spectral feature. The anisotropy observed by the Pierre Auger Observatory may signal the dawn of particle astronomy raising hopes for high energy neutrino observations. However, composition related measurements point to a different interpretation. A clear resolution of this mystery calls for much larger statistics than the reach of current observatories.