Full-sky searches for anisotropies in UHECR arrival directions with the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array

Understand

The arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays appear to be approximately isotropically distributed over the whole sky, but the last-generation UHECR detector arrays, the Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger) and the Telescope Array (TA), have detected thousands of events, allowing us to study small deviations from isotropy.

• So far, Auger has detected a large-scale anisotropy consistent with a $\sim 6.5\%$ dipole moment in the distribution of cosmic rays with $E > 8$~EeV, and both collaborations have reported indications for smaller-scale anisotropies at higher energies.
• On the other hand, neither array has full-sky coverage, the Auger field of view being limited to declinations $\delta < +45^\circ$ and the TA one to $\delta > -16^\circ$.
• Searches for anisotropies with full-sky coverage thus require combining data from both arrays.