Observational Evidence for Galactic Origin of Cosmic Rays Above 1019 eV and Reconnection on Galactic Scales

Abstract

The space distribution of 1019 eV cosmic rays obtained from the four major observatories at Haverah Park, SUGAR, Volcano Ranch and Yakutsk are compared with the expected distribution by taking the zenith angle distribution of the cosmic rays in each station individually and predicting the distribution in other coordinate systems. The observations are consistent with uniform distribution of cosmic rays along RA and Dec on the angular size greater than 10°. We then use the same procedure to predict the distribution that is expected to be seen along the galactic coordinates (ι II & β II )- While there is no marked difference between the observed and expected values in the β II plane, there is a clear anisotropy when plotted along the ι II plane with a chance probability of 5 10-6. We then plot the ι II distribution along the galactic mass distribution as well as the magnetic field distribution. This plot shows that there is a preference for these cosmic rays to arrive from the Galactic arm region (ι II around 120 and 300).Key wordsCosmic RaysGalactic Dynamics