14โ€“24 Jul 2025
CICG - International Conference Centre - Geneva, Switzerland
Europe/Zurich timezone
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Evidence for the Sombrero Galaxy as an Accelerator of the Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays

19 Jul 2025, 14:35
15m
Room B

Room B

Talk Cosmic-Ray Direct & Acceleration CRD

Speaker

Haoning He

Description

Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest-energy messenger from space, with energies exceeding 1 EeV. Although UHECRs were discovered more than 60 years ago, their origin remains a mystery. Pinpointing sources of UHECRs is crucial for understanding the extreme astrophysical processes that accelerate particles to such extraordinary energies. We searched for UHECR multiplets by analyzing 17 years of data with energies greater than 40 EeV from the Pierre Auger Observatory. A spatial association is found between a multiplet of 25.7+6.2โˆ’7.0 cosmic rays and the Sombrero galaxy with a local (global) significance of 4.5 ๐œŽ (3.3 ๐œŽ). The Sombrero Galaxy hosts a one-billion-solar-mass supermassive black hole and exhibits large-scale radio lobes and jets. Our finding provides critical evidence on active supermassive black holes as the source of the highest-energy cosmic rays.

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