Angular Anisotropies in the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background as a Probe of Its Origin

Abstract

Notwithstanding the advent of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, theoretical models predict that a significant fraction of the cosmic γ-ray background (CGB), at a level of 20% of the currently measured value, will remain unresolved. The angular power spectrum of intensity fluctuations of the CGB contains information on its origin. We show that probing the latter on scales from a few tens of arcminutes to several degrees, together with complementary GLAST observations of γ-ray emission from galaxy clusters and the blazar luminosity function, can discriminate between a background that originates from unresolved blazars or cosmic rays accelerated at structure formation shocks. © 2007, The American Astronomical Society.