Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays: The Annihilation of Super-Heavy Relics

The current status of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHE CR) enigma and several proposed solutions involving particle physics beyond the standard model are discussed. Emphasis is given to top--down models, and as a main example, supermassive dark matter as galactic source for UHE CR and the status of its experimental signatures (galactic anisotropy, chemical composition and clustering) is reviewed. Then different approaches to calculate fragmentation spectra of supermassive...

Super Heavy quasi-stable particles are naturally produced in the early universe and could represent a substantial fraction of the Dark Matter: the so-called Super Heavy Dark Matter (SHDM). The decay of SHDM represents also a possible source of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR), with a reliably calculated spectrum of the particles produced in the decay $(\propto E^{-1.9})$. The SHDM model for the production of UHECR can explain quantitatively only the excess of UHE events ...

Stable, quantized gravitational bound states of primordial black holes called Holeums could have been produced in the early universe and could be a component of the Super Heavy Dark Matter (SHDM) present in galactic halos. We show that Holeums of masses of the order of 10**13 to 10**14 GeV and above are stable enough to survive in the present-day universe. We identify such Holeums as promising candidates for the SHDM "X-particle" and show that the decay of such Holeums by pre...

Decaying superheavy particles can be produced by Topological Defects or, in case they are quasi-stable, as relics from the early Universe. The decays of these particles can be the sources of observed Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays ($E \sim 10^{10} - 10^{12} GeV$). The Topological Defects as the UHE CR sources are critically reviewed and cosmic necklaces and monopole-antiminopole pairs are identified as most plausible sources. The relic superheavy particles are shown to be clus...

The Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR), by UHE neutrino-relic neutrino--Z showering in Hot Dark Halos (HDM), shows an energy spectra, an anisotropy following the relic neutrino masses and clustering in dark halo. The lighter are the relic neutrinos masses, the higher their corresponding Z resonance energy peaks. A twin light neutrino mass splitting may reflect into a twin Z resonance and a complex UHECR spectra modulation as a twin bump at at highest GZK energy cut-off. Eac...

We review the main experimental evidences on ultra high energy cosmic rays and their implications in the physics of these extremely energetic particles, also in connection with dark matter and cosmology. We discuss the basis of theoretical models aiming at explaining observations, highlighting the most relevant open questions in this fascinating field of research.

Top-down models assume that the still unexplained Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR's) are the decay products of superheavy particles. Such particles may have been produced by one of the post-inflationary reheating mechanisms and may account for a fraction of the cold dark matter. In this paper, we assess the phenomenological applicability of the simplest instant preheating framework not to describe a reheating process, but as a mechanism to generate relic supermassive par...

Large-scale accretion shocks around massive clusters of galaxies, generically expected in the cold dark matter scenario of cosmological structure formation, are shown to be plausible sources of the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) by accelerating a mixture of heavy nuclei including the iron group elements. Current observations can be explained if the source composition at injection for the heavier nuclei is somewhat enhanced from simple expectations for the accr...

In 15 years of data taking the Pierre Auger Observatory has observed no events beyond $10^{11.3}$ GeV. This null result translates into an upper bound on the flux of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays implying $J (> 10^{11.3}$ GeV) $< 3.6 \times 10^{-5}$ km$^{-2}$ sr$^{-1}$ yr$^{-1}$, at the 90\%C.L. We interpret this bound as a constraint on extreme-energy photons originating in the decay super-heavy dark matter (SHDM) particles clustered in the Galactic halo. Armed with this cons...

It is shown that the acceleration of particles by a powerful relativistic jet associated with the activity of a supermassive black hole in the Galactic center several million years ago may explain the observed cosmic ray spectrum at energies higher than $10^{15}$ eV. The accelerated particles are efficiently confined in the extended magnetized gas halo created by the supernova and central black hole activity just after the Galaxy formation. We found that both the heavy and li...