Title: Can we use gravity to generate ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos?

Speaker: Dr. Mandar Patil, Institute of Mathematics Poland

Abstract: Origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos remains an enigma. All proposed mechanisms use electromagnetic interaction to accelerate changed particles. We propose for the first time, a mechanism that exclusively makes use of Gravity, rather than the electromagnetic forces. We show that it is possible to generate ultra-high energy particles in the overspinning Kerr geometry transcending Kerr bound by a small amount via collisional Penrose process with divergent efficiency. Further by solving the constraint Einstein equations in numerical relativity we construct a meaningful initial data and show that the overspinning Kerr configuration conducive to the production of ultra-high energy particles could possibly occur in the gravitational collapse scenario.