A Targeted Search for Point Sources of EeV Photons with the Pierre Auger Observatory

Authors

A. Aab, Radboud University Nijmegen
P. Abreu, Instituto Superior Técnico
M. Aglietta, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino
I. Al Samarai, Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies
I. F.M. Albuquerque, Universidade de Sao Paulo - USP
I. Allekotte, Instituto Balseiro
A. Almela, Centro Atomico Constituyentes
J. Alvarez Castillo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
J. Alvarez-Muñiz, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
G. A. Anastasi, Gran Sasso Science Institute
L. Anchordoqui, Lehman College
B. Andrada, Centro Atomico Constituyentes
S. Andringa, Instituto Superior Técnico
C. Aramo, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli
F. Arqueros, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
N. Arsene, Universitatea din Bucuresti
H. Asorey, Instituto Balseiro
P. Assis, Instituto Superior Técnico
J. Aublin, Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies
G. Avila, Pierre Auger Observatory
A. M. Badescu, University Politehnica of Bucharest
A. Balaceanu, Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering
R. J.Barreira Luz, Instituto Superior Técnico
J. J. Beatty, The Ohio State University
K. H. Becker, Bergische Universitat Wuppertal
J. A. Bellido, The University of Adelaide
C. Berat, Universite Grenoble Alpes
M. E. Bertaina, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino
X. Bertou, Instituto Balseiro
P. L. Biermann, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
P. Billoir, Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies
J. Biteau, Institut de Physique Nucléaire Orsay

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-10-2017

Abstract

© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Simultaneous measurements of air showers with the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory allow a sensitive search for EeV photon point sources. Several Galactic and extragalactic candidate objects are grouped in classes to reduce the statistical penalty of many trials from that of a blind search and are analyzed for a significant excess above the background expectation. The presented search does not find any evidence for photon emission at candidate sources, and combined p-values for every class are reported. Particle and energy flux upper limits are given for selected candidate sources. These limits significantly constrain predictions of EeV proton emission models from non-transient Galactic and nearby extragalactic sources, as illustrated for the particular case of the Galactic center region.

Publication Title

Astrophysical Journal Letters

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