The GKZ cutoff is...the maximum energy that cosmic rays can have before they start losing energy due to interactions with the 2.7 K cosmic background radiation that permeates the universe (c). The GKZ cutoff is close to 6 x 1019 eV, at which point, from a cosmic ray's reference frame, makes the cosmic background radiation appear to be gamma rays, very energetic photons. One such collision between a cosmic ray and a cosmic background radiation photon would cause the cosmic ray to lose ~20 percent of its energy. Several cosmic rays have been observed with energies above the GKZ cutoff and this poses a serious problem. These cosmic rays must be coming from somewhere relatively close to the earth (so that they managed to avoid the cosmic background radiation in their short journey across space)...or, we don't understand the laws of physics as well as we think we do. We have found no objects capable of accelerating cosmic rays to such energies near enough to the earth and...well, this one has yet to be figured out. It does however, give theoretical physicists the opportunity to come up with predictions of new particles, etc. One more thing, the GKZ comes from the names Greisen, Kamata, and Zatsepin, the scientists who first described this phenomenon.
As I have reiterated before, NOTHING travels faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. If a particle traveled faster than the speed of light (b), it would have an infinite energy. Again, you have deal with energies in a relativistic manner as opposed to a Newtonian manner.
The Dooschabnee torture (a) and the conspiracy theory (d) are figments of my imagination with no factual basis.
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