Particle physics explanations for ultra-high energy cosmic ray events
The origin of cosmic ray events withE ≳ 1011 GeV remains mysterious. In this talk I briefly summarize several proposed particle physics explanations: a breakdown of Lorentz invariance, the ‘Z-burst’ scenario, new hadrons with masses of several GeV as primaries, and magnetic monopoles with mass below 1010 GeV as primaries. I then describe in a little more detail the idea that these events are due to the decays of very massive, long-lived exotic particles.