On the cross correlation between the arrival direction of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, BL Lacertae, and EGRET detections: A new way to identify EGRET sources?
arXiv:astro-ph/0307079 · doi:10.1086/379006
Abstract
With the aim of testing recent claims for a particularly strong correlation between ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), observed with the AGASA and the Yakutsk experiments, and a sample of BL Lacertae (BL Lacs), we here conduct a blind statistical assessment. We search for associations between the same set of BL Lac objects and the arrival directions of 33 relevant UHECRs observed with the Haverah Park and the Volcano Ranch experiments. Within the accuracy of angle determination, there are no positional coincidences. The probability that this null result arises as a statistical fluctuation from the strongly correlated case is less than 5%. This implies that the possible correlation between the arrival directions of UHECRs and BL Lacs is not statistically sustained. We discuss the impact of our findings on the propose additional connection among UHECRs, BL Lacs, and EGRET gamma-ray blazars. Recently, such an association was used as classification technique for EGRET sources. Here we show that its main underlying hypothesis, i.e., the EGRET angular uncertainty is twice that quoted in the Third EGRET Catalog, underestimates the goodness of existing gamma-ray data.
arXiv commentReferences added. Accepted for publication in Astrophys. J. Lett
References in corpus (36)
- A Unified Approach to the Classical Statistical Analysis of Small Signals
- Detection of a Cosmic Ray with Measured Energy Well Beyond the Expected Spectral Cutoff due to Cosmic Microwave Radiation
- Ultrahigh energy neutrino scattering onto relic light neutrinos in galactic halo as a possible source of highest energy extragalactic cosmic rays
- Cosmic Ray Neutrino Annihilation on Relic Neutrinos Revisited: A Mechanism for Generating Air Showers above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin Cut-off
- New constraints from Haverah Park data on the photon and iron fluxes of UHE cosmic rays
- The arrival directions of the most energetic cosmic rays
- Cluster Analysis of Extremely High Energy Cosmic Rays in the Northern Sky
- Supernova remnants and gamma-ray sources
- Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays: The state of the art before the Auger Observatory
- BL Lacertae are probable sources of the observed ultra-high energy cosmic rays
- Extra dimensions and Strong Neutrino-Nucleon interactions above eV : Breaking the GZK Barrier
- The Gamma-Ray Blazar Content of the Northern Sky
- Detecting Gluino-Containing Hadrons
- Tracing protons through the Galactic magnetic field: a clue for charge composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays
- Correlation between Compact Radio Quasars and Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
- GZK Photons as Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays
- Strongly Interacting Neutrinos and the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays
- Super-GZK Photons from Photon-Axion Mixing
- Are ultrahigh energy cosmic rays signals of supersymmetry?
- Cosmic rays from remnants of quasars?
- Determination of absolute neutrino masses from Z-bursts
- Evidence for a connection between the gamma-ray and the highest energy cosmic-ray emissions by BL Lacertae objects
- The Energy Spectrum of Cosmic Rays Above eV as measured with the Haverah Park Array
- Multifrequency studies of the enigmatic gamma-ray source 3EG J1835+5918
- Extensive air showers with TeV-scale quantum gravity
- The clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and their sources
- Testing the Correlation of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with High Redshift Sources
- Electroweak instantons as a solution to the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray puzzle
- Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays: propagation in the Galaxy and anisotropy
- Cuts and penalties: comment on "The clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and their sources"
- Updated AGASA event list above 4x10^19eV
- Correlation of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays with Compact Radio Loud Quasars
- Nearby quasar remnants and ultra-high energy cosmic rays
- Comment on "Correlation between Compact Radio Lout Quasars and Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays"
- Reply to "Comment on `Correlation between Compact Radio Quasars and Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays'"
- Evading the GZK Cosmic-Ray Cutoff
Cited by in corpus (16)
- Cosmic Neutrino Pevatrons: A Brand New Pathway to Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Particle Physics
- Astrophysical Origins of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays
- Anisotropy vs chemical composition at ultra-high energies
- Search for Cross-Correlations of Ultra--High-Energy Cosmic Rays with BL Lacertae Objects
- Cosmic Rays: The Second Knee and Beyond
- Cosmic Ray Astronomy
- Do Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays Come from Active Galactic Nuclei and Fermi -ray Sources?
- Estimate of the correlation signal between cosmic rays and BL Lacs in future data
- Reply to ``Cuts and penalties: comment on `The clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and their sources' ''
- Systematic and quantitative approach for the identification of high energy gamma-ray source populations
- Experimental Ultra--High-Energy Cosmic Ray Physics
- Testing Hadronic Models of Gamma Ray Production at the Core of Cen A
- Observation of EGRET Gamma-Ray Sources by an Extensive Air Shower Experiment
- Identification of high energy gamma-ray sources and source populations in the era of deep all-sky coverage
- Observability of neutron events above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cut-off due to violation of Lorentz invariance
- Search for Cross-Correlations of Ultra--High-Energy Cosmic Rays with BL Lacertae Objects