ANALYSIS OF LARGE-SCALE ANISOTROPY OF ULTRA-HIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS IN HiRes DATA

Stereo data collected by the HiRes experiment over a six-year period are examined for large-scale anisotropy related to the inhomogeneous distribution of matter in the nearby universe. We consider the generic case of small cosmic-ray deflections and a large number of sources tracing the matter distribution. In this matter tracer model the expected cosmic-ray flux depends essentially on a single free parameter, the typical deflection angle θ s. We find that the HiRes data with threshold energies of 40 EeV and 57 EeV are incompatible with the matter tracer model at a 95% confidence level unless θ s > 10 deg. and are compatible with an isotropic flux. The data set above 10 EeV is compatible with both the matter tracer model and an isotropic flux.