We discuss recently published results of two-dimensional measurements of the cosmic ray anisotropy in the energy range 1-100 TeV. It is demonstrated that, in spite of pretence of the authors to measure the anisotropy in more detail than it was done in one-dimensional measurements of the first harmonic of CR intensity in sidereal time, new measurements give nothing essentially new. Moreover, two-dimensional picture is misleading creating an illusion that the true direction of the anisotropy is observed, while, as before, only the projection of the anisotropy onto the equatorial plane is measured and the phase of the anisotropy remains to be the only directly measured parameter. The sophisticated interpretations of the results of 2D measurements made by their authors are invalid, since they are based on the false assumption that the equatorial excess and deficit of CR intensity seen on the difference maps represent the real anisotropy.
The harmonic analysis of anisotropy of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays is performed for the Dark Matter halo model. In this model the relic superheavy particles comprise part of the Dark Matter and are concentrated in the Galactic halo. The Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays are produced by the decays of these particles. Anisotropy is caused by the non-central position of the Sun in the Galactic halo. The calculated anisotropy is in reasonable agreement with the AGASA data. For more precise test of the model a comparison of fluxes in the directions of the Galactic Center and Anticenter is needed.
The intensity of Galactic cosmic rays is nearly isotropic because of the influence of magnetic fields in the Milky Way. Here, we present two-dimensional high-precision anisotropy measurement for energies from a few to several hundred teraelectronvolts (TeV), using the large data sample of the Tibet Air Shower Arrays. Besides revealing finer details of the known anisotropies, a new component of Galactic cosmic ray anisotropy in sidereal time is uncovered around the Cygnus region direction. For cosmic-ray energies up to a few hundred TeV, all components of anisotropies fade away, showing a corot…
We considered propagation of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) through the galaxy. We investigated models with sources of UHECR distributed in the same way as Cold Dark Matter (CDM) in a self-consistent way, taking into account both extra-galactic and Galactic contributions. Using a very simple toy model of galactic magnetic field we showed that in the case of galactic origin of UHECRs the anisotropy can reach considerable values. In the case of extragalactic UHECRs origin the anisotropy appears to be non-vanishing only for electron and photon components due to synchrotron losses, but it h…
Several explanations for the existence of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays invoke the idea that they originate from the decay of massive particles created in the reheating following inflation. It has been suggested that the decay products can explain the observed isotropic flux of cosmic rays. We have calculated the anisotropy expected for various models of the dark matter distribution and find that at present data are too sparse above $4 \times 10^{19}$ eV to discriminate between different models. However we show that with data from three years of operation of the southern section of the Pierre …
We study the effect of the stochastic character of supernova explosions on the anisotropy of galactic cosmic rays below the knee. We conclude that if the bulk of cosmic rays are produced in supernova explosions the observed small and nearly energy independent amplitude of the anisotropy and its phase are to the large extent determined by the history of these explosions in the vicinity of the solar system, namely by the location and the age of the supernova remnants, within a few kpc, which give the highest contribution to the total intensity at the present epoch. Among the most important facto…
We present the results of a search for small-scale anisotropy in the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays above 10^19 eV measured in stereo by the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment. Performing an autocorrelation scan in energy and angular separation, we find that the strongest correlation signal in the HiRes stereo data set recorded between December 1999 and January 2004 is consistent with the null hypothesis of isotropically distributed arrival directions. These results are compared to previous claims of significant small-scale clustering in the AGASA data set.
We predict energy spectra and angular distributions of nucleons above 10**(19) eV that originate from sources distributed in the Local Supercluster, which is also supposed to contain a large scale magnetic field of strength between 0.05 and 0.5 micro Gauss. We show that this model can explain all present-day features of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, at least for field strengths close to 0.5 micro Gauss. The large-scale anisotropy and the clustering predicted by this scenario will allow strong discrimination against other models with next generation experiments.
The High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment is an air fluorescence detector which, operating in stereo mode, has a typical angular resolution of 0.6 degrees and is sensitive to cosmic rays with energies above 10^18 eV. HiRes is thus an excellent instrument for the study of the arrival directions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. We present the results of a search for anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions on small scales (<5 degrees) and at the highest energies (>10^19 eV). The search is based on data recorded between 1999 December and 2004 January, with a total of 271 even…
We show that ``top-down'' mechanisms of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays which involve heavy relic particle-like objects predict Galactic anisotropy of highest energy cosmic rays at the level of minimum $\sim 20%$. This anisotropy is large enough to be either observed or ruled out in the next generation of experiments.
The High Resolution Fly's Eye HiRes-I detector has now been in operation in monocular mode for over six years. During that time span, HiRes-I has accumulated a larger exposure to Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) above 10^19 eV than any other experiment built to date. This presents an unprecedented opportunity to search for anisotropy in the arrival directions of UHECRs. We present results of a search for dipole distributions oriented towards major astrophysical landmarks and a search for small-scale clustering. We conclude that the HiRes-I data set is, in fact, consistent with an isotrop…
We estimate the fluxes of very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays and neutrinos from the Galactic Center which are by-products of the hadronic interactions between primary protons which are accelerated up to $\sim 10^{19}$eV and ambient matter. We find that these signals depend strongly on the spectrum index of the primary protons. This means that detection of these signals from the Galactic Center will constrain the spectrum of the primary particles, which, in turn, should constrain the acceleration mechanism at the Galactic Center. We show that GeV-TeV gamma-rays will be detected by the ground-bas…
The study of the anisotropy of the arrival directions is an essential tool to investigate the origin and propagation of cosmic rays primaries. A simple way of recording many cosmic rays is to record coincidences between a number of detectors. We have monitored multi-TeV cosmic rays by a small array of water cherenkov detectors in Tehran(35 43 N, 51 20 E, 1200m a.s.l). More than 1.1*10^6 extensive air shower events were recorded. In addition to the Compton- Getting effect due to the motion of the earth in the Galaxy, an anisotropy has been observed which is due to a unidirectional anisotropy of…
With the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA), 581 cosmic rays above 10^19eV, 47 above 4 x 10^19eV, and 7 above 10^20eV are observed until August 1998. Arrival direction distribution of these extremely high energy cosmic rays has been studied. While no significant large-scale anisotropy is found on the celestial sphere, some interesting clusters of cosmic rays are observed. Above 4 x 10^19eV, there are one triplet and three doublets within separation angle of 2.5^o and the probability of observing these clusters by a chance coincidence under an isotropic distribution is smaller than 1 %. Espec…
Recently, the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment claims that there is no small scale anisotropy in the arrival distribution of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) above $E>10^{19}$ eV contrary to the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) observation. In this paper, we discuss the statistical significance of this discrepancy between the two experiments. We calculate arrival distribution of UHECRs above $10^{19}$ eV predicted by the source models constructed using the Optical Redshift Survey galaxy sample. We apply the new method developed by us for calculating arrival distribution i…
We examine the anisotropy of the arrival directions of twenty seven ultra high energy cosmic rays detected by the Pierre Auger Collaboration. We confirm the anisotropy of the arrival directions of these events and find a significant correlation with the updated definition of the supergalactic plane at distances up to 70 Mpc, A Monte Carlo calculation of isotropic source distribution suggests a chance probability for isotropic event arrival direction distribution of 2-6$\times10^{-4}$.
Contribution of nearby pulsars to the cosmic rays observed at Earth has been studied. It is found that the experimental bound on amplitude of cosmic ray anisotropy may produce significant constraint on the efficiency of converting pulsar rotational energy to emitted particles kinetic energy. Cosmic ray fluxes from two well known nearby gamma ray pulsars, namely the Vela and Geminga pulsars, are estimated. The analysis suggests that observed bound on cosmic ray anisotropy restricts the contributions of the Vela and the Geminga pulsars to at most 1 % of the observed cosmic rays below the knee.
The clusters (doublets) in ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are considered based on Yakutsk and AGASA extensive air shower array data. The problem of cluster origin is discussed. It is found that arrival directions of the clusters can point to a cosmic ray anisotropy. As a result of analysis of clusters, the conclusion on composition and origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays has been made.
A natural interpretation of the correlation between nearby Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and the highest-energy cosmic rays observed recently by the Pierre Auger Collaboration is that the sources of the cosmic rays are either AGN or other objects with a similar spatial distribution (the ``AGN hypothesis''). We question this interpretation. We calculate the expected distribution of the arrival directions of cosmic rays under the AGN hypothesis and argue that it is not supported by the data, one of manifestations of the discrepancy being the deficit of events from the direction of the Virgo super…
Planned space-based ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray detectors (TUS, JEM-EUSO and S-EUSO) are best suited for searches of global anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic-ray particles because they will be able to observe the full sky with a single instrument. We calculate quantitatively the strength of anisotropies associated with two models of the origin of the highest-energy particles: the extragalactic model (sources follow the distribution of galaxies in the Universe) and the superheavy dark-matter model (sources follow the distribution of dark matter in the Galactic ha…
Puzzles often give birth to the great discoveries, the false discoveries sometimes stimulate the exiting ideas in theoretical physics. The historical examples of both are described in Introduction and in section ``Cosmological Puzzles''. From existing puzzles most attention is given to Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) puzzle and to cosmological constant problem. The 40-years old UHECR problem consisted in absence of the sharp steepening in spectrum of extragalactic cosmic rays caused by interaction with CMB radiation. This steepening is known as Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff. It is …
The homogeneity of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CBR) is one of the most severe constraint for theories of the structure formation in the universe. We investigated the effect of the gravitational scattering (lensing) of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and superclusters on the anisotropy of the CBR by numerical simulations. Although this effect was thought to be unimportant, we found that the gravitational scatterings by superclusters can significantly reduce the anisotropy of the CBR. We took into account the exponential growth of the distance between two rays due to multiple scat…
We study in detail the effect of different particle release times from sources on the cosmic-ray (CR) spectrum below $10^{15}eV$ in the Galaxy. We discuss different possible forms of particle injection such as burst-like injection, continuous injection for a finite time, injection from a stationary source and energy dependent injection. When applied to the nearby known supernova remnants, we find that the observed CR anisotropy data favour the burst-like particle injection model for the CR diffusion coefficient $D(E)\propto E^a$ with $a=0.3-0.6$ in the local region. In the study we have also f…
Analysis on the daily variations of cosmic ray muons with $E_μ\geq 0.2 GeV$ based on the data of two directional muon telescopes at sea level and with a rigidity of response to cosmic proton spectrum above 0.4 GV is presented. The analysis covers two months of observations and in 60% of days, abrupt transitions between a low to a high muon intensity and vice-verse is observed, the period of high muon intensity is from $\sim 8.0h$ up to $\sim 19.0h$ (local time) and coincides with the period when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) lines overtake the Earth. This behavior strongly suggest th…
Annihilation of clumped superheavy dark matter provides an interesting explanation for the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. The predicted anisotropy signal provides a unique signature for this scenario.
High-energy cosmic ray events present important challenges to particle astrophysics. Their nature and origin are often not well understood and, as they occur in an energy domain not accessible to particle accelerators, there is no clear guide to their interpretation. We recently proposed a new, non-tachyonic, possible class of superluminal particles which may play an important cosmological role. In this note, we would like to point out that such particles, if they exist, are able to produce very high energy cosmic rays compatible with discoveries reported in the literature.
The present status of anisotropy studies for the highest energy cosmic rays is presented including the first full sky survey. Directions and prospects for the future are also discussed in light of new statistical methods and the last quantities of data expected in the near future from the Pierre Auger Observatory.
The amplitude of the Compton-Getting (CG) anisotropy contains the power-law index of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum. Based on this relation and using the Tibet air-shower array data, we measure the cosmic-ray spectral index to be $-3.03 \pm 0.55_{stat} \pm < 0.62_{syst}$ between 6 TeV and 40 TeV, consistent with $-$2.7 from direct energy spectrum measurements. Potentially, this CG anisotropy analysis can be utilized to confirm the astrophysical origin of the ``knee'' against models for non-standard hadronic interactions in the atmosphere.
Based on MAKET-ANI EAS data the distributions of equatorial coordinates of EAS core directions are obtained in the knee region. Anisotropy of primary cosmic rays is displayed only by declination equatorial coordinates (20+/-3 degrees) at primary energies more than 5-10 PeV. The fraction of anisotropic component turns out ~10% in the knee region.
In an earlier paper, the effect of the nearby known supernova remnants (SNRs) on the local cosmic-rays (CRs) was studied, considering different possible forms of the particle injection time. The present work is a continuation of the previous work, but assumes a more realistic model of CR propagation in the Galaxy. The previous work assumed an unbounded three-dimensional diffusion region, whereas the present one considers a flat cylindrical disc bounded in both the radial and vertical directions. The study has found that the effect of the vertical halo boundary $H$ on the local SNR contribution…
Anisotropy in arrival directions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays offers the most direct way to search for the sources of these particles. We present estimates of the angular correlation in the HiRes sample of stereo events above 10 EeV, and in the combined sample of HiRes and AGASA events above 40 EeV.
We discuss the region of transition between galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays. The exact shapes and compositions of these two components contains information about important parameters of powerful astrophysical sources and the conditions in extragalactic space. Several types of experimental data, including the exact shape of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, their chemical composition and their anisotropy, and the fluxes of cosmogenic neutrinos have to be included in the solution of this problem.
Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory provide evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of the cosmic rays with the highest energies, which are correlated with the positions of relatively nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) \cite{science}. The correlation has maximum significance for cosmic rays with energy greater than ~ 6x10^{19}$ eV and AGN at a distance less than ~ 75 Mpc. We have confirmed the anisotropy at a confidence level of more than 99% through a test with parameters specified {\em a priori}, using an independent data set. The observed correlation is compatible with…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) may originate from the decay of massive relic particles in the dark halo of the Galaxy, or they may be produced by supermassive black holes in the nuclei of nearby galaxies. The anisotropy in the arrival directions is studied in four dark halo models (cusped, isothermal, triaxial and tilted) and in four galaxy samples (galaxies intrinsically brighter than Centaurus A within 50 and 100 Mpc, and brighter than M32 within 50 and 100 Mpc). In decaying dark matter models, the amplitude of the anisotropy is controlled by the size of the Galactic halo, while the …
The recent discovery by the Pierre Auger collaboration of anisotropy in the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays, correlated with the positions of nearby active galactic nuclei, encourages the search for counterpart TeV gamma-ray emission. Approximately half of the sky viewed by the southern hemisphere Pierre Auger experiment is also visible at reasonable elevations for the northern hemisphere gamma-ray telescope array, VERITAS. We report on first observations by VERITAS of regions associated with the arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic ray events.
We have performed numerical simulations of the interplanetary transport of solar cosmic rays. The particles form a coherent pulse within $\sim0.01$ AU after their injection. The gradual decrease of a pulse's speed and anisotropy can be understood in terms of an equilibrium between pitch-angle scattering and focusing. The results should be useful for estimating times of particle injection.
The status of the field of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays is summarized, from the point of view of the latest results of the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) Experiment. HiRes results are presented, and compared with those of the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA), plus the Telescope Array and Pierre Auger experiments. The HiRes measurements of the cosmic ray spectrum, and the observation of the GZK cutoff are presented. HiRes results on composition, searches for anisotropy, measurement of the proton-air total cross section, and shapes of shower profiles are presented.
The arrival directions of ultrahigh energy extensive air showers (EAS) by Yakutsk, AGASA and SUGAR array data are considered. For the first time, the maps of equal exposition of celestial sphere for the distribution of particles by AGASA and SUGAR array data have been constructed. The large-scale anisotropy of E>4.10^19 eV cosmic rays from the side of Input and Output of the Galaxy Local Arm by Yakutsk, AGASA and SUGAR array data has been detected. The problem of cosmic ray origin is discussed.
This paper presents an introduction to the astrophysics of cosmic rays and diffuse gamma rays and discusses some of the puzzles that have emerged recently due to more precise data and improved propagation models: the excesses in Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission, secondary antiprotons and positrons, and the flatter than expected gradient of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. These also involve the dark matter, a challenge to modern physics, through its indirect searches in cosmic rays. Though the final solutions are yet to be found, I discuss some ideas and results obtained mostly with the numerical…
From the analysis of AGASA data above $4 \times 10^{19}$ eV, we show that the ultra-high energy cosmic rays flux is neither purely isotropic, nor reflects the expected anisotropy from a pure source distribution that maps large scale structure in the local universe. The arrival distribution seems to be the result of a mixture of fluxes (e.g., dark matter halo plus large scale structure) or the superposition of a direct and a diffuse radiation field components respectively. Another viable option is an arbitrary extragalactic flux reprocessed by a magnetized galactic wind model as recently propos…
The results of an analysis of the large scale anisotropy of cosmic rays in the PeV range are presented. The Rayleigh formalism is applied to the right ascension distribution of extensive air showers measured by the KASCADE experiment.The data set contains about 10^8 extensive air showers in the energy range from 0.7 to 6 PeV. No hints for anisotropy are visible in the right ascension distributions in this energy range. This accounts for all showers as well as for subsets containing showers induced by predominantly light respectively heavy primary particles. Upper flux limits for Rayleigh ampli…
In this proceeding we present the construction status and the performances of the Pierre Auger Observatory together with the first results obtained with our initial 18 month of data. In particular, we discuss our search for anisotropy near the Galactic Center, our limit on the photon fraction at the highest energies and our first estimate of the cosmic ray spectrum above 3 EeV. All of the material presented in this proceeding was extracted from the numerous Auger contributions to the 29th ICRC proceedings.
The problem in identifying the sites of origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays (CRs) is reviewed. Recent observational evidence from very-high energy (VHE, energies above 100 GeV) gamma-ray measurements is in contradiction with the surmise that synchrotron radiation from relativistic electrons is indicative for hadron acceleration. It rather points to a CR-acceleration efficiency of supernova remnants (SNRs) below one percent, much less than the value required if these objects were to be the main sources of Galactic cosmic rays (about 30%). Observations of CR anisotropy and the emission of low-energy …
Several explanations for the existence of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) invoke the idea that they originate from the decay of massive particles created in the reheating following inflation. It has been suggested that the decay products can explain the observed isotropic flux of UHECR. We have calculated the anisotropy expected for various models of the dark matter distribution and find that present data are too sparse above 4 x 10^19 eV to discriminate between different models. However, after three years of operation of the southern part of the Pierre Auger Observatory great progress i…
Large-scale accretion shocks around massive clusters of galaxies, generically expected in hierarchical scenarios of cosmological structure formation, are shown to be potential sources of the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) by accelerating a mixture of heavy nuclei including the iron group elements. Current observations can be explained if the source composition at injection for the heavier nuclei is somewhat enhanced from simple expectations for the accreting gas. The proposed picture should be testable by current and upcoming facilities in the near future through characteristic…
One way to understand the nonthermal history of the universe is by establishing the origins of the unresolved and truly diffuse extragalactic gamma rays. Dim blazars and radio/gamma galaxies certainly make an important contribution to the galactic gamma-ray background given the EGRET discoveries, and previous treatments are reviewed and compared with a new analysis. Studies of the gamma-ray intensity from cosmic rays in star-forming galaxies and from structure formation shocks, as well as from dim GRBs, are briefly reviewed. A new hard gamma-ray source class seems required from the predicted a…
Deviations from isotropy have been a key tool to identify the origin and the primary type of cosmic rays at low energies. We suggest that the Compton-Getting effect can play a similar role at ultra-high energies: If at these energies the cosmic ray flux is dominated by sources at cosmological distances, then the movement of the Sun relative to the cosmic microwave background frame induces a dipole anisotropy at the 0.6% level. The energy dependence and the orientation of this anisotropy provide important information about the transition between galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays, the charg…
If decays of superheavy relic particles in the galactic halo are responsible for ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, these particles must be clustered to account for small-scale anisotropy in the AGASA data. We show that the masses of such clusters are large enough for them to gravitationally lens stars and galaxies in the background. We propose a general strategy that can be used to detect such clusters via gravitational lensing, or to rule out the hypothesis of decaying relic particles as the origin of highest-energy cosmic rays.
The nuclei fraction in cosmic rays (CR) far exceeds the fraction of other CR species, such as antiprotons, electrons, and positrons. Thus the majority of information obtained from CR studies is based on interpretation of isotopic abundances using CR propagation models where the nuclear data and isotopic production cross sections in p- and alpha-induced reactions are the key elements. This paper presents an introduction to the astrophysics of CR and diffuse gamma rays and discusses some of the puzzles that have emerged recently due to more precise data and improved propagation models. Merging w…
Models which associate the origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with decays of relic superheavy particles predict the anisotropy of UHECR flux toward the Galactic center. We use the existing SUGAR data, which covered the Galactic center best so far, to look for such a signal and limit the fraction of UHECR produced by this mechanism. The absence of anisotropy toward the Galactic center in the SUGAR data implies at 95% confidence level that the fraction of SHDM-related cosmic rays should be less than 20% at $E>1\times10^{19}$ eV and less than 50% at $E>4\times10^{19}$ eV.
The current status of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHE CR) enigma and several proposed solutions involving particle physics beyond the standard model are discussed. Emphasis is given to top--down models, and as a main example, supermassive dark matter as galactic source for UHE CR and the status of its experimental signatures (galactic anisotropy, chemical composition and clustering) is reviewed. Then different approaches to calculate fragmentation spectra of supermassive particles are discussed. Finally, it is argued that UHE neutrinos cannot be - neither directly or indirectly - responsi…
