A targeted search for point sources of EeV photons with the Pierre Auger Observatory

S. J. SCIUTTO; THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION.

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Institute of Physics Publishing

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2017 vol. 837 p. 25 - 31

2041-8213

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.