Sensitivity of full-sky experiments to large scale cosmic ray anisotropies
Abstract
The two main advantages of space-based observation of extreme energy ( eV) cosmic rays (EECRs) over ground based observatories are the increased field of view and the full-sky coverage with nearly uniform systematics across the entire sky. The former guarantees increased statistics, whereas the latter enables a clean partitioning of the sky into spherical harmonics. The discovery of anisotropies would help to identify the long sought origin of EECRs. We begin an investigation of the reach of a full-sky space-based experiment such as EUSO to detect anisotropies in the extreme-energy cosmic-ray sky compared to ground based partial-sky experiments such as the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. The technique is explained here, and simulations for a Universe with just two nonzero multipoles, monopole plus either dipole or quadrupole, are presented. These simulations quantify the advantages of space-based, all-sky coverage.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1505.03922,
title = {Sensitivity of full-sky experiments to large scale cosmic ray anisotropies},
author = {Peter B. Denton and Thomas J. Weiler},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.03922},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
11 pages, 8 figures