A Targeted Search for Point Sources of EeV Neutrons
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2014-07-03 v1
Abstract
A flux of neutrons from an astrophysical source in the Galaxy can be detected in the Pierre Auger Observatory as an excess of cosmic-ray air showers arriving from the direction of the source. To avoid the statistical penalty for making many trials, classes of objects are tested in combinations as nine "target sets", in addition to the search for a neutron flux from the Galactic Center or from the Galactic Plane. Within a target set, each candidate source is weighted in proportion to its electromagnetic flux, its exposure to the Auger Observatory, and its flux attenuation factor due to neutron decay. These searches do not find evidence for a neutron flux from any class of candidate sources. Tabulated results give the combined p-value for each class, with and without the weights, and also the flux upper limit for the most significant candidate source within each class. These limits on fluxes of neutrons significantly constrain models of EeV proton emission from non-transient discrete sources in the Galaxy.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1406.4038,
title = {A Targeted Search for Point Sources of EeV Neutrons},
author = {The Pierre Auger Collaboration and A. Aab and P. Abreu and M. Aglietta and M. Ahlers and E. J. Ahn and I. Al Samarai and I. F. M. Albuquerque and I. Allekotte and J. Allen and P. Allison and A. Almela and J. Alvarez Castillo and J. Alvarez-Muñiz and R. Alves Batista and M. Ambrosio and A. Aminaei and L. Anchordoqui and S. Andringa and C. Aramo and F. Arqueros and H. Asorey and P. Assis and J. Aublin and M. Ave and M. Avenier and G. Avila and A. M. Badescu and K. B. Barber and J. Bäuml and C. Baus and J. J. Beatty and K. H. Becker and J. A. Bellido and C. Berat and X. Bertou and P. L. Biermann and P. Billoir and F. Blanco and M. Blanco and C. Bleve and H. Blümer and M. Boháčová and D. Boncioli and C. Bonifazi and R. Bonino and N. Borodai and J. Brack and I. Brancus and P. Brogueira and W. C. Brown and P. Buchholz and A. Bueno and M. Buscemi and K. S. Caballero-Mora and B. Caccianiga and L. Caccianiga and M. Candusso and L. Caramete and R. Caruso and A. Castellina and G. Cataldi and L. Cazon and R. Cester and A. G. Chavez and S. H. Cheng and A. Chiavassa and J. A. Chinellato and J. Chudoba and M. Cilmo and R. W. Clay and G. Cocciolo and R. Colalillo and L. Collica and M. R. Coluccia and R. Conceição and F. Contreras and M. J. Cooper and S. Coutu and C. E. Covault and A. Criss and J. Cronin and A. Curutiu and R. Dallier and B. Daniel and S. Dasso and K. Daumiller and B. R. Dawson and R. M. de Almeida and M. De Domenico and S. J. de Jong and J. R. T. de Mello Neto and I. De Mitri and J. de Oliveira and V. de Souza and L. del Peral and O. Deligny and H. Dembinski and N. Dhital and C. Di Giulio and A. Di Matteo and J. C. Diaz and M. L. Díaz Castro and P. N. Diep and F. Diogo and C. Dobrigkeit and W. Docters and J. C. D'Olivo and P. N. Dong and A. Dorofeev and M. T. Dova and J. Ebr and R. Engel and M. Erdmann and M. Erfani and C. O. Escobar and J. Espadanal and A. Etchegoyen and P. Facal San Luis and H. Falcke and K. Fang and G. Farrar and A. C. 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Papenbreer and G. Parente and A. Parra and S. Pastor and T. Paul and M. Pech and J. Pȩkala and R. Pelayo and I. M. Pepe and L. Perrone and R. Pesce and E. Petermann and C. Peters and S. Petrera and A. Petrolini and Y. Petrov and R. Piegaia and T. Pierog and P. Pieroni and M. Pimenta and V. Pirronello and M. Platino and M. Plum and A. Porcelli and C. Porowski and P. Privitera and M. Prouza and V. Purrello and E. J. Quel and S. Querchfeld and S. Quinn and J. Rautenberg and O. Ravel and D. Ravignani and B. Revenu and J. Ridky and S. Riggi and M. Risse and P. Ristori and V. Rizi and J. Roberts and W. Rodrigues de Carvalho and I. Rodriguez Cabo and G. Rodriguez Fernandez and J. Rodriguez Rojo and M. D. Rodríguez-Frías and G. Ros and J. Rosado and T. Rossler and M. Roth and E. Roulet and A. C. Rovero and C. Rühle and S. J. Saffi and A. Saftoiu and F. Salamida and H. Salazar and F. Salesa Greus and G. Salina and F. Sánchez and P. Sanchez-Lucas and C. E. Santo and E. Santos and E. M. Santos and F. Sarazin and B. Sarkar and R. Sarmento and R. Sato and N. Scharf and V. Scherini and H. Schieler and P. Schiffer and A. Schmidt and O. Scholten and H. Schoorlemmer and P. Schovánek and A. Schulz and J. Schulz and S. J. Sciutto and A. Segreto and M. Settimo and A. Shadkam and R. C. Shellard and I. Sidelnik and G. Sigl and O. Sima and A. Śmiałkowski and R. Šmída and G. R. Snow and P. Sommers and J. Sorokin and R. Squartini and Y. N. Srivastava and S. Stanič and J. Stapleton and J. Stasielak and M. Stephan and A. Stutz and F. Suarez and T. Suomijärvi and A. D. Supanitsky and M. S. Sutherland and J. Swain and Z. Szadkowski and M. Szuba and O. A. Taborda and A. Tapia and M. Tartare and N. T. Thao and V. M. Theodoro and J. Tiffenberg and C. Timmermans and C. J. Todero Peixoto and G. Toma and L. Tomankova and B. Tomé and A. Tonachini and G. Torralba Elipe and D. Torres Machado and P. Travnicek and E. Trovato and M. Tueros and R. Ulrich and M. Unger and M. Urban and J. F. Valdés Galicia and I. Valiño and L. Valore and G. van Aar and A. M. van den Berg and S. van Velzen and A. van Vliet and E. Varela and B. Vargas Cárdenas and G. Varner and J. R. Vázquez and R. A. Vázquez and D. Veberič and V. Verzi and J. Vicha and M. Videla and L. Villaseñor and B. Vlcek and H. Wahlberg and O. Wainberg and D. Walz and A. A. Watson and M. Weber and K. Weidenhaupt and A. Weindl and F. Werner and B. J. Whelan and A. Widom and L. Wiencke and B. Wilczyńska and H. Wilczyński and M. Will and C. Williams and T. Winchen and D. Wittkowski and B. Wundheiler and S. Wykes and T. Yamamoto and T. Yapici and P. Younk and G. Yuan and A. Yushkov and B. Zamorano and E. Zas and D. Zavrtanik and M. Zavrtanik and I. Zaw and A. Zepeda and J. Zhou and Y. Zhu and M. Zimbres Silva and M. Ziolkowski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.4038},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
17 pages, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters