Statistics of cluster multiplicity and the nature of UHE cosmic ray sources

D. HARARI; S. MOLLERACH; E. ROULET

Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

IOP Publishing LTD

Año: 2004 vol. 05 p. 1 - 17

We study in detail the properties of clusters of ultra high energy cosmic ray events, looking in particular to their angular correlation function, to the relative frequency of clusters with different multiplicities (e.g. doublets vs. triplets or quadruplets), as well as the way in which these quantities should evolve for different ultra high energy cosmic rays source scenarios as a function of the experimental exposure achieved. We identify some useful tools which can help to characterise the nature of the cosmic ray sources in a more precise way after a modest increase in statistics will be achieved in the very near future, even before strong signals from individual sources become eventually observable.