Related papers: Highest energy particle physics with the Pierre Au…
The Pierre Auger Observatory, being the largest air-shower experiment in the world, offers an unprecedented exposure to neutral particles at the highest energies. Since the start of data taking more than 18 years ago, various searches for…
The Pierre Auger Observatory detects ultra-high energy cosmic rays by implementing two complementary air-shower techniques. The combination of a large ground array and fluorescence detectors, known as the "hybrid" concept, means that a rich…
The first interactions of photon-induced showers are of electromagnetic nature, and the transfer of energy to the hadron/muon channel is reduced with respect to the bulk of hadron-induced showers. This results in a lower number of secondary…
We investigate the detection of exotic massive strongly interacting hadrons (uhecrons) in ultra high energy cosmic ray telescopes. The conclusion is that experiments such as the Pierre Auger Observatory have the potential to detect these…
In its Phase I, the Pierre Auger Observatory has led to several observations, driving the field of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) research over the last 20 years. Major achievements obtained so far include the unprecedented precise…
This paper summarizes the status and the recent measurements from the Pierre Auger Observatory. The energy spectrum is described and its features discussed. We report searches for anisotropy of cosmic ray arrival directions on large scales…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest astroparticle experiment in operation. Complementary to the measurements of the charged ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays, it provides a very good sensitivity to the detection of UHE photons and…
The Pierre Auger Observatory, a hybrid detector for the study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), is now approaching completion. After describing Auger present status and performance, with an emphasis on the advantages provided by…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are studied with giant ground-based detector systems recording extensive air showers, induced by cosmic ray particles in the atmosphere. Research at the Pierre Auger Observatory - the largest of such…
The Pierre Auger Observatory for cosmic rays provides a laboratory for studying fundamental interactions at energies well beyond those available at colliders. In addition to hadrons or photons, Auger is sensitive to ultra-high energy…
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…
Many models for ultra-high energy cosmic rays postulate exotic scenarios to explain the sources or the nature of these particles. A characteristic feature of these models is the prediction of a significant flux of photons at ultra-high…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. It combines a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level together with a fluorescence detector to measure the development of air showers…
Studies of the cosmic ray energy spectrum at the highest energies with the Pierre Auger Observatory
Air shower simulation programs are essential tools for the analysis of data from cosmic ray experiments and for planning the layout of new detectors. They are used to estimate the energy and mass of the primary particle. Unfortunately the…
The sources of the observed ultra-high energy cosmic rays must also generate ultra-high energy neutrinos. Deep inelastic scattering of these neutrinos with nucleons on Earth probe center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s} \sim 100$ TeV, well beyond…
We use a kinetic-equation approach to describe the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic ray protons and nuclei comparing theoretical results with the observations of the Pierre Auger Observatory.
The combination of fluorescence and surface detectors at the Pierre Auger Observatory offers unprecedented precision in testing models of hadronic interactions at center-of-mass energies around 70 TeV and beyond. However, for some time,…
The Pierre Auger Observatory can detect with high efficiency the air showers induced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays incident at large (> 60 deg.) zenith angles. We describe here the specific characteristics of inclined and horizontal…
The shape of the longitudinal development of the showers generated in the atmosphere by very high energy cosmic ray particles encodes information about the mass composition of the flux, and about the properties of hadronic interactions that…