Introduction to Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Ray Physics

This revised edition provides an up-to-date summary of the field of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, dealing with their origin, propagation, and composition,. The authors reflect the enormous strides made since the first edition in the realm of experimental work, in particular the use of vastly improved, more sensitive and precise detectors. The level remains introductory and pedagogical, suitable for students and researchers interested in moving into this exciting field. Throughout the text, the authors focus on giving an introductory overview of the key physics issues, followed by a clear and concise description of experimental approaches and current results.

Key Features:

• Updates the most coherent summary of the field available, with new text that provides the reader with clear historical context.
• Brand new discussion of contemporary space-based experiments and ideas for extending ground-based detectors.
• Completely new discussion of radio detection methods.
• Includes a new chapter on small to intermediate-scale anisotropy.
• Offers new sections on modern hadronic models and software packages to simulate showers.

Pierre Sokolsky and Gordon Thomson are both emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Utah, where Sokolsky was a Distinguished Professor and Thomson held the Jack W. Keuffel Chair in Experimental Astrophysics. Both were co-spokespersons of the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) and the Telescope Array experiments. Sokolsky played an important role in the pioneering Fly's Eye experiment and is the recipient of the American Physical Society's Panofsky Prize for the development of the air-fluorescence technique for the study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.