I think the simplest explanation is that we're just not accurate enough at determining the trajectory of the particle in question. They tried matching against s

I think the simplest explanation is that we're just not accurate enough at determining the trajectory of the particle in question. They tried matching against sources "just outside its arrival direction" but without access to the paper (the DOI link just doesn't work for me, loads an empty page) or knowledge about the instruments being used it's hard to say how much that rules out. At least looking into the Telescope Array's workings, it seems plausible that it'd struggle to produce accurate trajectory data. It works by analyzing the light produced by cascading collisions of particles with the incoming one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_shower_(physics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_shower_(physics). At first glance this seems like it would be very noisy for determining trajectory.