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Abstract: The muon content of extensive air showers is an observable sensitive to the primary composition and to the hadronic interaction properties. We present here different methods which allow us to estimate the muon number at the ground level and the muon production depth by exploiting the measurement of the longitudinal, lateral and temporal distribution of particles in air showers recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The results, obtained at about 10[sup]19 eV (E[inf]CM ∼ 140 TeV center-of-mass energy for proton primaries), are compared to the predictions of LHC-tuned hadronic interaction models with different primary masses and suggest a deficit in the muon content at the ground predicted by simulations. The Pierre Auger Observatory uses water-Cherenkov detectors to measure particle densities at the ground and therefore has a good sensitivity to the muon content of air showers. Moreover, due to its hybrid design, the combination of muon measurements with other independent mass composition analyses such as Xmax provides additional constraints on hadronic interaction models.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, ultra-high energy cosmic rays, muons, mass composition, hadronic interactions
Published in RUNG: 03.03.2016; Views: 5955; Downloads: 221
Full text (298,46 KB)

Abstract: We report for the first time on the measurement of the correlation between the depth of shower maximum and the signal in water-Cherenkov stations for events reconstructed by both the fluorescence and the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Such a correlated measurement is a unique feature of a hybrid air-shower observatory and allows us to determine the purity of the cosmic-ray composition. The observed correlation in the energy range around the “ankle” lg(E/eV) = 18.5−19.0 differs significantly from the expectations for pure beams, indicating that the primary composition in this range is mixed, unless the hadronic interactions at these energies behave very differently than in conventional, LHC-tuned event generators.
Keywords: ultra-high energy cosmic rays, elemental composition, depth of shower maximum, secondary cosmic rays, Pierre Auger Observatory
Published in RUNG: 02.03.2016; Views: 6535; Downloads: 244
Full text (388,00 KB)

Abstract: The large-scale distribution of arrival directions of high-energy cosmic rays carries major clues to understanding their origin. The Pierre Auger Collaboration have implemented different analyses to search for dipolar and quadrupolar anisotropies in different energy ranges spanning four orders of magnitude. A common phase ≈270◦ of the first harmonic modulation in right-ascension was found in adjacent energy intervals below 1 EeV, and another common phase ≈100◦ above 4 EeV. A constancy of phase measurements in ordered energy intervals originating from a genuine anisotropy is expected to appear with a smaller number of events than those needed to achieve significant amplitudes. This led us to design a prescribed test aimed at establishing whether this consistency in phases is real at 99% CL. The test required a total independent exposure of 21,000 km2 sr yr. We report on the status of this prescription. We also report the results of the search for a dipole anisotropy for cosmic rays with energies above 4 EeV using events with zenith angles between 60◦ and 80◦. Compared to previous analyses of events with zenith angles smaller than 60◦, this extension increases the size of the data set by 30%, and enlarges the fraction of exposed sky from 71% to 85%. The largest departure from isotropy is found in the energy range above 8 EeV, with an amplitude for the first harmonic in right ascension r1 = (4.4 ± 1.0) × 10[sup]−2, that has a chance probability P(≥ r1) = 6.4×10[sup]−5, reinforcing the hint previously reported with vertical events alone.
Keywords: high-energy cosmic rays large-scale distribution anisotropy studies Pierre Auger Observatory
Published in RUNG: 02.03.2016; Views: 6454; Downloads: 243
Full text (862,90 KB)

Abstract: The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) has provided the most detailed view to date of the emission toward the Galactic center (GC) in high-energy γ-rays. This paper describes the analysis of data taken during the first 62 months of the mission in the energy range 1–100 GeV from a 15° × 15° region about the direction of the GC. Specialized interstellar emission models (IEMs) are constructed to enable the separation of the γ-ray emissions produced by cosmic ray particles interacting with the interstellar gas and radiation fields in the Milky Way into that from the inner ∼1 kpc surrounding the GC, and that from the rest of the Galaxy. A catalog of point sources for the 15° × 15° region is self-consistently constructed using these IEMs: the First Fermi-LAT Inner Galaxy Point Source Catalog (1FIG). The spatial locations, fluxes, and spectral properties of the 1FIG sources are presented, and compared with γ-ray point sources over the same region taken from existing catalogs. After subtracting the interstellar emission and point-source contributions a residual is found. If templates that peak toward the GC are used to model the positive residual the agreement with the data improves, but none of the additional templates tried account for all of its spatial structure. The spectrum of the positive residual modeled with these templates has a strong dependence on the choice of IEM.
Keywords: cosmic rays – Galaxy: center – gamma-rays: general – gamma-rays: ISM – radiation mechanisms: non-thermal
Published in RUNG: 02.03.2016; Views: 6459; Downloads: 298
Full text (6,36 MB)