Measurements and implications of cosmic ray anisotropies from TeV to trans-EeV energies

Abstract

Important observational results have been recently reported on the angular distributions of cosmic rays at all energies, calling into question the perception of cosmic rays a decade ago. These results together with their in-progress interpretations are summarised in this review paper, covering both large-scale and small-scale anisotropies from TeV energies to the highest ones. While the magnetic field in the Galaxy has long been considered as an external data imprinting a quasi-random walk to particles and thus shaping the angular distributions of Galactic cosmic rays through the induced average density gradient, the information encompassed in the angular distributions in the TeV--PeV energy range appear today as a promising tool to infer some properties of the local magnetic field environments. At the highest energies, the extragalactic origin of the particles has been recently determined observationally. While no discrete source of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays has been identified so far, the noose is tightening around nearby extragalactic objects, and some prospects are discussed.

Review paper to appear in Astropart. Phys., 63 pages, 22 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
• Cosmic Ray Models
• Revisiting the distance to the nearest UHECR source: Effects of extra-galactic magnetic fields
• High-Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays (Astro2020 Science White Paper)
• Anisotropies of Diffusive Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays in $f(R)$ Gravity Theory
• Large- and Medium-Scale Anisotropies in the Arrival Directions of Cosmic Rays observed with KASCADE-Grande
• Analysing Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays' Anisotropy in $\mathbf{f}(\mathbf{R},\mathbf{T})$ Gravity Theory
• Chaotic Behavior of Trapped Cosmic Rays