Search for Correlations between Nearby AGNs and Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays

Abstract

The majority of the highest energy cosmic rays are thought to be electrically charged: protons or nuclei. Charged particles experience angular deflections as they pass through galactic and extra-galactic magnetic fields. As a consequence correlation of cosmic ray arrival directions with potential sources has proved to be difficult. This situation is not helped by current data samples where the number of cosmic rays/source are typically < O(1). Progress will be made when there are significantly larger data samples and perhaps with better catalogs of candidate sources. This paper reports a search for correlations between the RXTE catalog of nearby active galactic nuclei, AGNs, and the published list of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from the AGASA experiment. Although no statistically significant correlations were found, two correlations were observed between AGASA events and the most inclusive category of RXTE AGNs.

arXiv comment14 pages, 7 figures of which 2 of the figures include 3 parts

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• On Active Galactic Nuclei as Sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
• Cross-Correlation between UHECR Arrival Distribution and Large-Scale Structure
• Towards unravelling the structural distribution of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray sources
• Systematic Survey of the Correlation between Northern HECR Events and SDSS Galaxies