Three Regions of Excessive Flux of PeV Cosmic Rays

TL;DR

This study identifies three regions with excessive PeV cosmic ray flux, highlighting the potential role of isolated pulsars as sources, challenging traditional supernova remnant models.

Contribution

The paper reports the discovery of three PeV cosmic ray excess regions and suggests isolated pulsars may significantly contribute to Galactic cosmic rays.

Findings

Three regions of excessive flux with >4σ confidence

Absence of supernova remnants near these regions

Presence of isolated pulsars capable of accelerating heavy nuclei to PeV energies

Abstract

Three regions of excessive flux of cosmic rays with energies of the order of PeV are found in the experimental data of the EAS MSU array at a confidence level greater than 4\sigma. For two of them, there are similar regions in the experimental data of the EAS-1000 Prototype array. One of the interesting features of the regions is the absence of supernova remnants in their vicinities, traditionally considered as the main sources of Galactic cosmic rays, but the presence of isolated pulsars, some of which are able to accelerate heavy nuclei up to energies close to PeV. In our opinion, this favors the assumption that isolated pulsars are able to contribute to the flux of Galactic cosmic rays more than is usually assumed.