Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and filaments of galaxies in the northern sky

Abstract

The Telescope Array (TA) experiment reported the arrival direction distribution of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with energies above 5.7x10^19 eV in the northern sky. A clustering of TA events, the so-called hotspot, was found; however, its nature has not yet been understood. To understand the origin of the TA hotspot, we examine the sky distributions of the TA UHECR arrival direction and filamentary structures of galaxies in the local universe. By statistical tests for anisotropy, we find a close correlation of TA events with the filaments of galaxies connected to the Virgo cluster. We discuss our finding and its implications.