A search for point sources of EeV photons

THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION (505 AUTHORS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER); GARCIA, B.

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014 vol. 789 p. 1 - 12

0004-637X

Measurements of air showersmade using the hybrid technique developed with the fluorescence and surface detectorsof the Pierre Auger Observatory allow a sensitive search for point sources of EeV photons anywhere in the exposedsky. A multivariate analysis reduces the background of hadronic cosmic rays. The search is sensitive to a declinationband from −85◦ to +20◦, in an energy range from 1017.3 eV to 1018.5 eV. No photon point source has been detected.An upper limit on the photon flux has been derived for every direction. The mean value of the energy flux limitthat results from this, assuming a photon spectral index of −2, is 0.06 eV cm−2 s−1, and no celestial directionexceeds 0.25 eV cm−2 s−1. These upper limits constrain scenarios in which EeV cosmic ray protons are emitted bynon-transient sources in the Galaxy.