Search for single sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays on the sky

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new method to identify single bright sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays by analyzing event doublets and magnetic deflections, achieving accurate source localization and magnetic field reconstruction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining high-energy event doublets and magnetic deflection analysis to locate cosmic ray sources and estimate magnetic field properties.

Findings

Source positions can be recovered within one degree in 68% of cases.

Deflection power can be reconstructed with 25% precision for typical magnetic field values.

The method's accuracy depends on the turbulent component of the Galactic Magnetic Field.

Abstract

In this paper, we suggest a new way to identify single bright sources of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) on the sky, on top of background. We look for doublets of events at the highest energies, E > 6 x 10^19 eV, and identify low energy tails, which are deflected by the Galactic Magnetic Field (GMF). For the sources which are detected, we can recover their angular positions on the sky within one degree from the real ones in 68% of cases. The reconstruction of the deflection power of the regular GMF is strongly affected by the value of the turbulent GMF. For typical values of 4 microG near the Earth, one can reconstruct the deflection power with 25% precision in 68% of cases.