Related papers: AugerPrime: Status and first results
The combined data of Fluorescence and Surface Detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory has recently provided the strongest constraints on the validity of predictions from current models of hadronic interactions. The unmodified predictions…
I describe some of the results on ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays that have been obtained with the Pierre Auger Observatory. These include measurements of the spectrum, composition and anisotropies. Possible astrophysical scenarios that…
One of key scientific objectives of the Pierre Auger Observatory is the search for ultra-high energy photons. Such photons could originate either in the interactions of energetic cosmic-ray nuclei with the cosmic microwave background…
We present a new design for the water Cherenkov detectors that are in use in various cosmic ray observatories. This novel design can provide a significant improvement in the independent measurement of the muonic and electromagnetic…
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…
The detectors of the surface array of the Pierre Auger Observatory are water Cherenkov tanks. The signals from each tank are read out using three photomultipliers. The energy of the primary particle is inferred from signal densities and…
The origin and nature of ultra high energy cosmic rays remains being a mystery. However, great progress has been made in recent years due to the observations performed by the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. In particular, it…
Over the past decade, radio detection of cosmic rays has matured from small-scale prototype experiments to installations spanning several km$^2$ with more than a hundred antennas. The physics of the radio signal is well understood and…
Measuring proton-proton interaction cross-sections at center-of-mass energies above 40 TeV remains a significant challenge in particle physics. The Pierre Auger Observatory provides a unique opportunity to study the interactions at the…
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…
Recent measurements of the properties of cosmic rays above 10^17 eV are summarized and implications on our contemporary understanding of their origin are discussed. Cosmic rays with energies exceeding 10^20 eV have been measured, they are…
The very low statistics of cosmic rays above the knee region make their study possible only through the detection of the extensive air showers (EAS) produced by their interaction with the constituents of the atmosphere. The Pierre Auger…
The Pierre Auger Observatory has been collecting data in a stable manner since January 2004. We present here a study of the cosmic ray composition using events recorded in hybrid mode during the first years of data taking. These are air…
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…
The Southern Pierre Auger Observatory is now nearing completion and the accumulating data sample has already allowed to extract scientific results of relevance for ultra-high energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) physics. This lecture focuses on 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…
It is anticipated that the Pierre Auger Observatory can be used to detect cosmic neutrinos of >10^19 eV that arrive at very large zenith angles. However showers created by neutrino interactions close to the detector must be picked out…
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 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…
Over the last 30 years or so, a handful of events observed in ground-based cosmic ray detectors seem to have opened a new window in the field of high-energy astrophysics. These events have energies exceeding 5x10**19 eV (the region of the…