Sources of sub-GZK cosmic rays

Abstract

We analyze the existing evidence that BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) are sources of the highest-energy cosmic rays. We argue that three independent signatures observed in the real data -- (1) improvement of correlations with corrections of trajectories for the Galactic magnetic field; (2) connection between gamma-ray and UHECR emissions; (3) non-uniform distribution of correlating rays over the sky -- are consistent with the hypothesis that a substantial fraction of cosmic rays in the energy range 40-60 EeV are protons accelerated in BL Lacs.