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Title: Searches for anisotropies in the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1]
  1. Univ. Siegen, Siegen (Germany). et al.
+ Show Author Affiliations

We analyze the distribution of arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory in 10 years of operation. The data set, about three times larger than that used in earlier studies, includes arrival directions with zenith angles up to 80°, thus covering from -90° to +45° in declination. After updating the fraction of events correlating with the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the Véron-Cetty and Véron catalog, we subject the arrival directions of the data with energies in excess of 40 EeV to different tests for anisotropy. We search for localized excess fluxes, self-clustering of event directions at angular scales up to 30°, and different threshold energies between 40 and 80 EeV. We then look for correlations of cosmic rays with celestial structures both in the Galaxy (the Galactic Center and Galactic Plane) and in the local universe (the Super-Galactic Plane). We also examine their correlation with different populations of nearby extragalactic objects: galaxies in the 2MRS catalog, AGNs detected by Swift-BAT, radio galaxies with jets, and the Centaurus A (Cen A) galaxy. None of the tests show statistically significant evidence of anisotropy. As a result, the strongest departures from isotropy (post-trial probability $$\sim 1.4$$%) are obtained for cosmic rays with $$E\gt 58$$ EeV in rather large windows around Swift AGNs closer than 130 Mpc and brighter than 1044 erg s-1 (18° radius), and around the direction of Cen A (15° radius).

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
Pierre Auger Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1236362
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-14-487-AD-AE-CD-TD; arXiv eprint number arXiv:1411.6111
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 804, Issue 1; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 121 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Precursor Wave Amplification by Ion–Electron Coupling through Wakefield in Relativistic Shocks journal September 2019
Magnetic fields in spiral galaxies journal January 1990
Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from nearby starburst galaxies journal April 2018
Tests of Lorentz Symmetry in the Gravitational Sector journal December 2016
Azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of the surface detector signals of the Pierre Auger Observatory text January 2016
Magnetic fields in spiral galaxies journal December 2015
Constraints on Physical Conditions for the Acceleration on Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays in Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) Observed with the Fermi Large Area Telescope journal November 2017
IMAGINE: a comprehensive view of the interstellar medium, Galactic magnetic fields and cosmic rays journal August 2018
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Gravitational slingshots around black holes in a binary journal January 2020
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Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies text January 2019
Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies text January 2019
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IMAGINE: A comprehensive view of the interstellar medium, Galactic magnetic fields and cosmic rays text January 2018
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