The arrival directions of the most energetic cosmic rays
Abstract
In this Letter we examine the arrival directions of the most energetic cosmic rays (E > 2 * 10^19 eV) detected by several air shower experiments. We find that data taken by different air shower arrays show positive correlations, indicating a non--uniform arrival direction distribution. We also find that the events with energy $ > 4 * 10^19 eV exhibit a correlation with the general direction of the supergalactic plane, where a large number of potential sources is located. If confirmed by data from other experiments our results would support models for the extragalactic origin of the highest energy cosmic rays.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9505093,
title = {The arrival directions of the most energetic cosmic rays},
author = {Todor Stanev and Peter Biermann and Jeremy Lloyd-Evans and Joerg Rachen and Alan Watson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9505093},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
7 pages; 1 figure included; uuencoded, compressed PostScript file; final version, corrected in some points, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.Lett