Search for Galactic point sources of EeV neutrons

THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION (AUTOR 434 DE 474); M. TUEROS (COAUTOR)

Beijing

Conferencia; 32nd International Cosmic Ray Conference 2011; 2011

Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The Pierre Auger Observatory has sensitivity to neutron fluxes produced at cosmic ray acceleration sites in the Galaxy. Because of relativistic time dilation, the neutron mean decay length is (9.2 × E) kpc, where E is the neutron energy in EeV. A blind search over the field of view of the Auger Observatory for a point-like excess yields no statistically significant candidates. The neutron flux upper limit is reported as a celestial function for three different energy thresholds. Also a search for excesses of cosmic rays in the direction of selected populations of candidate Galactic sources is performed. The bounds obtained constrain models for persistent discrete sources of EeV cosmic rays in the Galaxy.