Estimate of the correlation signal between cosmic rays and BL Lacs in future data

The existing correlation between BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) and cosmic-ray events observed by HiRes experiment provide sufficient information to formulate quantitatively the hypothesis about the flux of neutral cosmic-ray particles originated from BL Lacs. We determine the potential of future cosmic ray experiments to test this hypothesis by predicting the number of coincidences between arrival directions of cosmic rays and positions of BL Lacs on the celestial sphere, which should be observed in the future datasets. We find that the early Pierre Auger data will not have enough events to address this question. On the contrary, the final Pierre Auger data and the early Telescope Array data will be sufficient to fully test this hypothesis. If confirmed, it would imply the existence of highest-energy neutral particles coming from cosmological distances.Comment: 5 page

Testing the correlations between ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and BL Lac type objects with HiRes stereoscopic data

Previously suggested correlations of BL Lac type objects with the arrival directions of the ultra-high-energy cosmic ray primaries are tested by making use of the HiRes stereoscopic data. The results of the study support the conclusion that BL Lacs may be the cosmic ray sources and suggest the presence of a small (a few percent) fraction of neutral primaries at E>10^{19} eV.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Identification of extragalactic sources of the highest energy EGRET photons by correlation analysis

We found significant correlations between the arrival directions of the highest energy photons (E>10 GeV) observed by EGRET and positions of the BL Lac type objects (BL Lacs). The observed correlations imply that not less than three per cent of extragalactic photons at these energies originate from BL Lacs. Some of the correlating BL Lacs have no counterparts in the EGRET source catalog, i.e. do not coincide with strong emitters of gamma-rays at lower energy. The study of correlating BL Lacs suggests that they may form a subset which is statistically different from the total BL Lac catalog; we argue that they are prominent candidates for TeV gamma-ray sources. Our results demonstrate that the analysis of positional correlations is a powerful approach indispensable in cases when low statistics limits or even prohibits the standard case-by-case identification.Comment: 5 pages, MNRAS styl

Comment on "Correlation of the Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays with Nearby Extragalactic Objects"

We argue that the data published by the Pierre Auger Collaboration (arXiv:0711.2256) disfavor at 99% confidence level their hypothesis that most of the highest-energy cosmic rays are protons from nearby astrophysical sources, either Active Galactic Nuclei or other objects with a similar spatial distribution.Comment: 1000 words, 2 figures, scicite.st

Evidence for a connection between the gamma-ray and the highest energy cosmic-ray emissions by BL Lacertae objects

A set of potentially gamma-ray--loud BL Lac objects is selected by intersecting the EGRET and BL Lac catalogs. Of the resulting 14 objects, eight are found to correlate with arrival directions of ultra--high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), with significance of the order of 5 sigma. This suggests that gamma-ray emission can be used as a distinctive feature of those BL Lac objects that are capable of producing UHECR.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, version published in APJ Letter

Photon-axion mixing and ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from BL Lac type objects -- Shining light through the Universe

Photons may convert into axion like particles and back in the magnetic field of various astrophysical objects, including active galaxies, clusters of galaxies, intergalactic space and the Milky Way. This is a potential explanation for the candidate neutral ultra-high-energy (E>10^18 eV) particles from distant BL Lac type objects which have been observed by the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment. Axions of the same mass and coupling may explain also TeV photons detected from distant blazars.Comment: Revtex 10 pages, 6 figures. V.2: QED dispersion effects taken into account; principal results unchanged. V3: misprints and sqrt(4*pi) factors in Gauss to eV conversion corrected; conclusions unchange

Light Nuclei solving Auger puzzles. The Cen-A imprint

Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) map at 60 EeV have been found recently by AUGER group spreading anisotropy signatures in the sky. The result have been interpreted as a manifestation of AGN sources ejecting protons at GZK edges mostly from Super-galactic Plane. The result is surprising due to the absence of much nearer Virgo cluster. Moreover, early GZK cut off in the spectra may be better reconcile with light nuclei (than with protons). In addition a large group (nearly a dozen) of events cluster suspiciously along Cen-A. Finally, proton UHECR composition nature is in sharp disagreement with earlier AUGER claim of a heavy nuclei dominance at 40 EeV. Therefore we interpret here the signals as mostly UHECR light nuclei (He, Be, B, C, O), very possibly mostly the lightest (He,Be) ones, ejected from nearest AGN Cen-A, UHECR smeared by galactic magnetic fields, whose random vertical bending is overlapping with super-galactic arm. The eventual AUGER misunderstanding took place because of such a rare coincidence between the Super Galactic Plane (arm) and the smeared (randomized) signals from Cen-A, bent orthogonally to the Galactic fields. Our derivation verify the consistence of the random smearing angles for He, Be and B, C, O, in reasonable agreement with the AUGER main group events around Cen-A. Only few other rare events are spread elsewhere. The most collimated from Cen-A are the lightest. The most spread the heavier. Consequently Cen-A is the best candidate UHE neutrino tau observable by HEAT and AMIGA as enhanced AUGER array at tens-hundred PeV energy. This model maybe soon tested by new events clustering around the Cen-A and by composition imprint study.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray production in the polar cap regions of black hole magnetospheres

We develop a model of ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) production via acceleration in a rotation-induced electric field in vacuum gaps in the magnetospheres of supermassive black holes (BH). We show that if the poloidal magnetic field near the BH horizon is misaligned with the BH rotation axis, charged particles, which initially spiral into the BH hole along the equatorial plane, penetrate into the regions above the BH "polar caps" and are ejected with high energies to infinity. We show that in such a model acceleration of protons near a BH of typical mass 3e8 solar masses is possible only if the magnetic field is almost aligned with the BH rotation axis. We find that the power of anisotropic electromagnetic emission from an UHECR source near a supermassive BH should be at least 10-100 times larger then UHECR power of the source. This implies that if the number of UHECR sources within the 100 Mpc sphere is ~100, the power of electromagnetic emission which accompanies proton acceleration in each source, $10^{42-43}$ erg/s, is comparable to the typical luminosities of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the local Universe. We also explore the acceleration of heavy nuclei, for which the constraints on the electromagnetic luminosity and on the alignment of magnetic field in the gap are relaxed

Search for Anisotropy of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with the Telescope Array Experiment

We study the anisotropy of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) events collected by the Telescope Array (TA) detector in the first 40 months of operation. Following earlier studies, we examine event sets with energy thresholds of 10 EeV, 40 EeV, and 57 EeV. We find that the distributions of the events in right ascension and declination are compatible with an isotropic distribution in all three sets. We then compare with previously reported clustering of the UHECR events at small angular scales. No significant clustering is found in the TA data. We then check the events with E>57 EeV for correlations with nearby active galactic nuclei. No significant correlation is found. Finally, we examine all three sets for correlations with the large-scale structure of the Universe. We find that the two higher-energy sets are compatible with both an isotropic distribution and the hypothesis that UHECR sources follow the matter distribution of the Universe (the LSS hypothesis), while the event set with E>10 EeV is compatible with isotropy and is not compatible with the LSS hypothesis at 95% CL unless large deflection angles are also assumed. We show that accounting for UHECR deflections in a realistic model of the Galactic magnetic field can make this set compatible with the LSS hypothesis.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Upper limit on the flux of photons with energies above 10(19) eV using the Telescope Array surface detector

We search for ultra-high energy photons by analyzing geometrical properties of shower fronts of events registered by the Telescope Array surface detector. By making use of an event-by-event statistical method, we derive upper limits on the absolute flux of primary photons with energies above 1019, 1019.5, and 1020 eV based on the first three years of data takenopen4