A Search for Three and Four Point Correlation in HiRes Stereo Data

TL;DR

This study searches for multi-point correlations in ultra-high-energy cosmic ray arrival directions using HiRes stereo data, finding no significant clustering or correlation with known astrophysical objects.

Contribution

It introduces a method to detect multi-point correlations in cosmic ray data and applies it to HiRes data, providing the first such analysis for this dataset.

Findings

No significant clustering detected in the data.

No correlation found between triplets and BL Lac objects.

Method can effectively compare observed data with isotropic simulations.

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the possible existence of multi-point correlation in the arrival direction of the UHECR events detected by the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) stereo detector. Multi-point correlations could result from the deflection of UHECRs by galactic and intergalactic magnetic fields, and the subsequent dispersion of arrival directions from point like sources. The search is performed by calculating the solid angle subtended by the polygon between triplets and quadruplets of events in the HiRes data. The resulting distribution of solid angles is then compared to the cumulative distributions from multiple simulated isotropic data sets to estimate the significance of any excess. We also looked for potential correlation of the small solid angle triplets found in the data with the locations of the BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects. Neither statistically significant clustering nor significant correlations with BL Lac objects were found in these studies.