Voitsekhovskyi V. Acceleration and propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays in the Local Universe

Establishing the sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs, E > 10^18 eV) remains one of the main unsolved problems in modern astrophysics. Cosmic rays (CRs) of such energies are of exceptional interest not only for astrophysics, but also for particle physics in general, since terrestrial accelerators do not have the ability to accelerate protons or nuclei of heavier elements to energies above 1020 eV, which we detect from outer space. The study of such particles will provide to us a better understanding of the standard model of elementary particles and the physical processes that occurred in the early universe. Despite the more than century-old history of cosmic ray physics, we still do not know the sources of UHECRs, nor the mechanisms of acceleration of CRs in them. This is caused mainly by the deflection of the trajectories of charged particles in magnetic fields and energy losses due to interaction with background radiation.