Evidence for a connection between the gamma-ray and the highest energy cosmic-ray emissions by BL Lacertae objects

Abstract

A set of potentially gamma-ray--loud BL Lac objects is selected by intersecting the EGRET and BL Lac catalogs. Of the resulting 14 objects, eight are found to correlate with arrival directions of ultra--high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), with significance of the order of 5 sigma. This suggests that gamma-ray emission can be used as a distinctive feature of those BL Lac objects that are capable of producing UHECR.

Comments: 11 pages, 1 figure, version published in APJ Letters