The Two Point Angular Autocorrelation Function and the Origin of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays

R.W. Clay , B.R.Dawson , L. Kewley , M. Johnston-Hollitt, PASA, 17 (3), 207.

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Application to the SUGAR data

We have derived the two point angular autocorrelation function for the SUGAR data above three threshold energies and those data are shown in tables 1, 2, and 3. It is evident from the tables that, for the data available for SUGAR, any evidence for clustering is statistically weak. However, both of the higher energy datasets (tables 2 and 3) show positive correlations on the whole out to angular distances of the order of $40^{\circ}$. If that angle had been chosen a priori for testing as a possible scattering scale, we would have regarded even the SUGAR data as significant. Since that decision had not been taken, the result is strongly suggestive but not usefully significant. As a pilot study for the future Pierre Auger dataset, this emphasises that we must make a number of a priori decisions about the analysis procedures.

Rather than picking a likely spread for any clustering, our choice might have been to determine optimum angular intervals to be used in deriving the two point function with the hope that our function will be statistically significant at each angular spacing. In the case of our SUGAR data, this involves an appropriate a priori choice of the angular interval, which we selected as $5^{\circ}$ for the tables. If clustering exists out to a certain angle, we can then determine the angular deviation, to this precision, for propagation from various sources with different spreads provided that the data are dominated by a small number of sources.

For instance, in the case of the SUGAR data, we might have chosen $15^{\circ}$ intervals rather than $5^{\circ}$. The data for both of the higher energy datasets would then have been arguably significant at the smaller angular spacings but the

4 x 1019eV dataset would have spread to $45^{\circ}$ compared to $30^{\circ}$ for the

6 x 1019eV data. This might seem to be physically consistent due to the expectation of reduced scattering at the higher energies and, if a source could be identified, would yield valuable information on intergalactic magnetic fields.


Next Section: Interpretation of Two Point
Title/Abstract Page: The Two Point Angular
Previous Section: The Two Point Angular
Contents Page: Volume 17, Number 3

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