<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Next week's UBC colloquium will be on ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. If you are interested in meeting personally with the speaker, please e-mail Scott Oser, <a href="mailto:oser@phas.ubc.ca">oser@phas.ubc.ca</a> , who will be arranging his schedule.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>Title: Origins of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays: New Results from the Pierre Auger Observatory<br>Speaker: Corbin Covault (Case Western Reserve University)<br>Date: Thursday January 24, 2008 at 4pm in Hennings 201 at UBC<br><br>Abstract: The world's largest cosmic ray observatory has recently reported a new result that represents a major step forward in our understanding of the origins of the highest energy cosmic rays. The astrophysical origins of the highest energy cosmic rays have remained a persistent mystery for decades. Where in the universe do these particles come from? How do they obtain such enormous energies? Now finally, we seem to have a new handle to address these questions. The Pierre Auger Observatory, in Malargue, Argentina, has been operating since 2004, and already we have some clues, including the energy spectrum and limits on photon flux that strongly suggest an extragalactic origin for the highest energy cosmic rays. But quite recently, the unparalleled collecting area of Auger has been brought to bear on the question of potential correlations between nearby active galaxies and cosmic ray arrival directions. In this talk, I will summarize our main correlation result and what this implies for the origins of cosmic rays. I will also describe plans for the future that we expect will lead to unambiguous identifications of individual astrophysical objects as sources.<br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Barry Davids</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Adjunct Professor of Physics,</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Simon Fraser University and</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Research Scientist</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">TRIUMF, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">4004 Wesbrook Mall</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Vancouver, BC V6T 2A3</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Canada</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">(604) 222-7396</font></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>