Related papers: Quark Matter Induced Extensive Air Showers
The characteristics of an extensive air shower derive from both the mass of the primary ultra-high-energy cosmic ray that seeds its development and the properties of the hadronic interactions that feed it. With its hybrid detector design,…
We present measurements of the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum $X_\mathrm{max}$, inferred for the first time on an event-by-event level using the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Using deep learning, we were able to…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest energy messengers of the present universe, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV. Studies of astrophysical particles (nuclei, electrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed…
Although recent measurements of the shower profiles of ultra-high energy cosmic rays suggest that they are largely initiated by heavy nuclei, such conclusions rely on hadronic interaction models which have large uncertainties. We…
We revisit and extend the analysis supporting a 60 year-old suggestion that cosmic rays air showers resulting from primary particles with energies above 10^{18} eV should be straightforward to detect with radar ranging techniques, where the…
The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory measures the atmospheric depth, $X_{max}$, where the longitudinal profile of the high energy air showers reaches its maximum. This is sensitive to the nuclear mass composition of the…
We fit the cosmic-ray spectrum measured with the Pierre Auger Observatory's surface detectors above an energy of $10^{17}$ eV, along with composition information inferred from the depth of shower maximum measured with its fluorescence…
The Quark Nugget (QN) model of dark matter suggests that the dark matter may consist of compact composite objects of quark matter. Although such composite particles can strongly interact with visible matter, they may remain undetected…
We report on studies of the composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger Observatory. The detection of longitudinal air shower profiles with the fluorescence detector is described and the measurement of the average…
The gravitational wave resonant detectors can be used as detectors of quark nuggets, like nuclearites (nuclear matter with a strange quark). This search has been carried out using data from two 2350 Kg, 2 K cooled, aluminum bar detectors:…
We advocate the idea that the surprising emission of extreme ultra violet (EUV) radiation and soft x-rays from the Sun are powered externally by incident dark matter (DM) particles. The energy and the spectral shape of this otherwise…
To interpret the mean depth of cosmic ray air shower maximum and its dispersion, we parametrize those two observables as functions of the first two moments of the $\ln A$ distribution. We examine the goodness of this simple method through…
The characteristics of extensive air showers are sensitive to the details of hadronic interactions at energies and in kinematic regions beyond those tested by human-made accelerators. Uncertainties on extrapolations of the hadronic…
The existence of deconfined quark matter in the superdense interior of neutron stars is a key question that has drawn considerable attention over the past few decades. Quark matter can comprise an arbitrary fraction of the star, from 0 for…
Astronomical observations from small galaxies to the largest scales in the universe can be consistently explained by the simple idea of dark matter. The nature of dark matter is however still unknown. Empirically it cannot be any of the…
Some of the means through which the possible presence of nearly deconfined quarks in neutron stars can be detected by astrophysical observations of neutron stars from their birth to old age are highlighted.
We continue our work on a proposal for what dark matter could be, namely that the dark matter consists of essentially macroscopic objects built from ordinary matter. The only element of new physics is that there should exist several types…
It has been recently argued in \cite{Bertolucci:2016xjm, Zioutas:2020ndf, Zioutas:2023ybw} that numerous enigmatic observations remain challenging to explain within the framework of conventional physics. These anomalies include unexpected…
Observations of cosmic rays have been improving at all energies, with higher statistics and reduced systematics. Fundamental questions remain regarding the origins of cosmic rays both within the Galaxy and in extragalactic sources, and new…
Experiments that observe coherent radio emission from extensive air showers induced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays are designed for a detailed study of the development of the electromagnetic part of air showers. Radio detectors can…