Related papers: Hadronic physics 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…
We propose a method to extract high-energy hadronic interaction properties from the distributions of two of the main observables of proton extensive air showers: the depth of maximum shower development, $X_\mathrm{max}$, and the number of…
The analysis of high-energy air shower data allows one to study the proton-air cross section at energies beyond the reach of fixed target and collider experiments. The mean depth of the first interaction point and its fluctuations are a…
The Pierre Auger Observatory aims to determine the nature and origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR). The Auger hybrid detector combines fluorescence observations of extended air showers, initiated in the atmosphere by these…
The scientific achievements of the Pierre Auger Collaboration cover diverse and complementary fields of research. The search for the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is based on the measurement of the energy spectrum and…
The predictions of hadronic interaction models for cosmic-ray induced air showers contain inherent uncertainties due to limitations of available accelerator data and theoretical understanding in the required energy and rapidity regime.…
We evaluate the consistency of hadronic interaction models in the CORSIKA simulation package with publicly available fluorescence telescope data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. By comparing the first few central moments of the extended…
The world largest exposure to ultra-high energy cosmic rays accumulated by the Pierre Auger Observatory led to major advances in our understanding of their properties, but the many unknowns about the nature and distribution of the sources,…
Cosmic-ray particles with ultra-high energies (above $10^{18}$ eV) are studied through the properties of extensive air showers which they initiate in the atmosphere. The Pierre Auger Observatory detects these showers with unprecedented…
With the knowledge and statistical precision derived from two decades of measurement, the Pierre Auger Observatory has significantly deepened our understanding of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays while unearthing an increasingly complex…
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…
Studies of the composition of the highest energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger Observatory, including examination of hadronic physics effects on the structure of extensive air showers. Submissions to the 31st ICRC, Lodz, Poland (July…
The Pierre Auger Observatory infers the chemical composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays through two independent detection techniques. The Fluorescence Detector (FD) measures the longitudinal profile of high energy air showers and can…
We report on a study about some characteristics of muon production during the development of extended air showers initiated by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Using simulations with the recent new version of the AIRES air shower simulation…
We present a new method for probing the hadronic interaction models at ultra-high energy and extracting details about mass composition. This is done using the time profiles of the signals recorded with the water-Cherenkov detectors of the…
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 present an analysis of the correlation between the depth of the maximum of air-shower profiles and the signal in water-Cherenkov stations in events registered simultaneously by the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger…
The muon content of extensive air showers is an observable sensitive to the primary composition and to the hadronic interaction properties. The Pierre Auger Observatory uses water-Cherenkov detectors to measure particle densities at the…
In extensive air shower experiments, the number of muons crossing a detector at a given position, as well as their arrival time, arrival direction, and energy, are determined by a more fundamental 3-dimensional distribution linked to the…
Ground based observations appear to indicate that Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) of the highest energies (>10^{18.7} eV) consist of heavy particles -- shower depth and muon production data both pointing towards this conclusion. On…