Published December 2012 | Version v1
Journal article

LARGE-SCALE DISTRIBUTION OF ARRIVAL DIRECTIONS OF COSMIC RAYS DETECTED ABOVE 1018 eV AT THE PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY

  • 1. LIP and Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal)
  • 2. Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (INAF), Università di Torino and Sezione INFN, Torino (Italy)
  • 3. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  • 4. Fermilab, Batavia, IL (United States)
  • 5. Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP (Brazil)
  • 6. Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC), Université Paris 7, CNRS-IN2P3, Paris (France)
  • 7. Centro Atómico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro (CNEA-UNCuyo-CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina)
  • 8. New York University, New York, NY (United States)
  • 9. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)
  • 10. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  • 11. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico, D. F. (Mexico)
  • 12. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
  • 13. IFGW, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP (Brazil)
  • 14. Università di Napoli 'Federico II' and Sezione INFN, Napoli (Italy)
  • 15. IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands)
  • 16. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (United States)
  • 17. Rudjer Boškovi'c Institute, 10000 Zagreb (Croatia)
  • 18. IFLP, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and CONICET, La Plata (Argentina)

Description

A thorough search for large-scale anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays detected above 1018 eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory is presented. This search is performed as a function of both declination and right ascension in several energy ranges above 1018 eV, and reported in terms of dipolar and quadrupolar coefficients. Within the systematic uncertainties, no significant deviation from isotropy is revealed. Assuming that any cosmic-ray anisotropy is dominated by dipole and quadrupole moments in this energy range, upper limits on their amplitudes are derived. These upper limits allow us to test the origin of cosmic rays above 1018 eV from stationary Galactic sources densely distributed in the Galactic disk and predominantly emitting light particles in all directions.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/203/2/34

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series
Journal Volume
203
Journal Issue
2
Journal Page Range
[20 p.]
ISSN
0067-0049
CODEN
APJSA2

INIS

Optional Information