Angular correlation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with compact radio-loud quasars

Abstract

Angular correlations of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with cosmologically distant sources may provide clues to these mysterious events. We compare cosmic ray tracks with energies above 10 20 eV to a compilation of radio-loud compact QSO positions. The statistical method emphasizes invariant quantities and a test of statistical independence of track and source distributions. Statistical independence is ruled out by several independent statistics at confidence levels of orders 97–99%, indicating that track directions and QSO source positions are correlated at a significant level.