Correlation of the Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays with Nearby Extragalactic Objects
Abstract
Using data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory during the past 3.7 years, we demonstrated a correlation between the arrival directions of cosmic rays with energy above 6 × 1019 electron volts and the positions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) lying within ∼75 megaparsecs. We rejected the hypothesis of an isotropic distribution of these cosmic rays with at least a 99% confidence level from a prescribed a priori test. The correlation we observed is compatible with the hypothesis that the highest-energy particles originate from nearby extragalactic sources whose flux has not been substantially reduced by interaction with the cosmic background radiation. AGN or objects having a similar spatial distribution are possible sources.
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We are grateful to the following agencies and organizations for financial support: Gobierno De La Provincia de Mendoza, Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Municipalidad de Malargüe, Fundación Antorchas, Argentina; the Australian Research Council; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos do Ministerio da Ciencia e Tecnologia (FINEP/MCT), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Brazil; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Conseil Régional Ile-de-France, Département Physique Nucléaire et Corpusculaire (PNC-IN2P3/CNRS), Département Sciences de l'Univers (SDU-INSU/CNRS), France; Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Finanzministerium Baden-Württemberg, Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren (HGF), Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Nordrhein Westfalen, Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, Baden-Württemberg, Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca (MIUR), Italy; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), Mexico; Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), Netherlands; Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal; Ministry for Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Slovenian Research Agency, Slovenia; Comunidad de Madrid, Consejería de Educacíon de la Comunidad de Castilla La Mancha, FEDER funds, Ministerio de Educacíon y Ciencia, Xunta de Galicia, Spain; Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK; Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, The Grainger Foundation, USA; América Latina Formación Académica–European Community/High Energy Physics Latin-American European Network, and UNESCO.
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Published In
Science
Volume 318 | Issue 5852
9 November 2007
9 November 2007
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American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Received: 1 October 2007
Accepted: 23 October 2007
Published in print: 9 November 2007
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