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Abstract: The quality of the physics results, derived from the analysis of the data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory depends heavily on the calibration and monitoring of the components of the detectors. It is crucial to maintain a database containing complete information on the absolute calibration of all photomultipliers and their time evolution. The low rate of the physics events implies that the analysis will have to be made over a long period of operation. This requirement imposes a very organized and reliable data storage and data management strategy, in order to guarantee correct data preservation and high data quality. The Fluorescence Detector (FD) consists of 27 telescopes with about 12,000 phototubes which have to be calibrated periodically. A special absolute calibration system is used. It is based on a calibrated light source with a diffusive screen, uniformly illuminating photomultipliers of the camera. This absolute calibration is performed every few years, as its use is not compatible with the operation of the detector. To monitor the stability and the time behavior, another light source system operates every night of data taking. This relative calibration procedure yields more than 2×10[sup]4 raw files each year, about 1 TByte/year. In this paper we describe a new web-interfaced database architecture to manage, store, produce and analyse FD calibration data. It contains the configuration and operating parameters of the detectors at each instant and other relevant functional parameters that are needed for the analysis or to monitor possible instabilities, used for the early discovery of malfunctioning components. Based on over 10 years of operation, we present results on the long term performance of FD and its dependence on environmental variables. We also report on a check of the absolute calibration values by analysing the signals left by stars traversing the FD field of view.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, Fluorescence Detector, detector calibration and monitoring, automated calibration procedure
Published in RUNG: 03.03.2016; Views: 5701; Downloads: 215
Full text (1,06 MB)

Abstract: At the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we have developed a new method to measure the total amount of energy that is transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission. We find that this radiation energy is an estimator of the cosmic ray energy. It scales quadratically with the cosmic ray energy, as expected for coherent emission. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicular to the geomagnetic field at the Auger site, in the frequency band of the detector from 30 to 80 MHz. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated energies and arrival directions of the cosmic rays. We find energy resolutions of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the complete data set, and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five stations with signal.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), extensive air showers, radio reconstruction: energy resolution
Published in RUNG: 03.03.2016; Views: 6011; Downloads: 214
Full text (574,66 KB)

Abstract: The data collected with the Pierre Auger Observatory have led to a number of surprising discoveries. While a strong suppression of the particle flux at the highest energies has been established unambiguously, the dominant physics processes related to this suppression could not be identified. Within the energy range covered by fluorescence detector observations with sufficient statistics, an unexpected change of the depth of maximum distribution is found. Using LHC-tuned interaction models these observations can be understood as a correlated change of the fluxes of different mass groups. On the other hand, they could also indicate a change of hadronic interactions above the energy of the ankle. Complementing the water Cherenkov detectors of the surface array with scintillator detectors will, mainly through the determination of the muonic shower component, extend the composition sensitivity of the Auger Observatory into the flux suppression region. The upgrade of the Auger Observatory will allow us to estimate the primary mass of the highest energy cosmic rays on a shower-by-shower basis. In addition to measuring the mass composition the upgrade will open the possibility to search for light primaries at the highest energies, to perform composition-selected anisotropy studies, and to search for new phenomena including unexpected changes of hadronic interactions. After introducing the physics motivation for upgrading the Auger Observatory the planned detector upgrade is presented. In the second part of the contribution the expected performance and improved physics sensitivity of the upgraded Auger Observatory are discussed.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, ultra-high energy cosmic rays, elemental composition sensitivity, Auger upgrade (AugerPrime), muonic shower component, scintillator detectors
Published in RUNG: 03.03.2016; Views: 5649; Downloads: 226
Full text (659,02 KB)

Abstract: The Auger Engineering Radio Array, an extension of the Pierre Auger Observatory with antennas in the MHz range, requires to monitor the atmospheric conditions, which have a large influence on the radio emission of air showers. In particular, amplified signals up to an order of magnitude have been detected as an affect of thunderstorms. For a more detailed investigation and more generally, for detecting thunderstorms, a new lightning detection system has been installed at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. In addition, an electric-field mill measures the field strength on ground level at the antenna array. With these measurements, data periods affected by thunderstorms can be identified. Additionally, a lightning trigger for the water-Cherenkov detectors was developed to read out individual stations when a lightning was detected nearby. With these data, a possible correlation between the formation of lightning and cosmic rays can be investigated even at low energies of about 10[sup]15 eV. The structure and functionality of the lightning detection are described and first data analyses are shown.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, Auger Engineering Radio Array, atmospheric monitoring, lightning detectors
Published in RUNG: 03.03.2016; Views: 5934; Downloads: 200
Full text (1,10 MB)

Abstract: We present a combined fit of both flux and composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays as measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The fit has been performed for energies above 5 × 10[sup]18 eV, i.e. the region of the all-particle spectrum above the so-called “ankle” feature. A simple astrophysical model consisting of identical sources has been adopted, where nuclei are injected with a rigidity dependent mechanism and the sources are uniformly distributed in a comoving volume. The fit results suggest a source model characterized by relatively low maximum injection energies and hard spectral indices. The impact of different sources of systematic uncertainties in the above result is discussed.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, ultra-high energy cosmic rays, energy spectrum, elemental composition, combined data fit
Published in RUNG: 03.03.2016; Views: 5922; Downloads: 234
Full text (704,98 KB)