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Keywords: ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR), UHECR anisotropies, Pierre Auger Observatory
Published in RUNG: 16.06.2020; Views: 2636; Downloads: 100
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Abstract: Since 2007, the Telescope Array (TA) experiment, based in Utah, USA, has been observing ultra high energy cosmic rays to understand their origins. The experiment includes a surface detector (SD) array and three fluorescence detector (FD) stations. The FD stations, installed surrounding the SD array, measure the air fluorescence light emitted from extensive air showers (EASs) for precise determination of their energies and species. The detectors employed at one of the three FD stations were relocated from the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment. At the other two stations, newly designed detectors were constructed for the TA experiment. An FD consists of a primary mirror and a camera equipped with photomultiplier tube pixels. To obtain the EAS parameters with high accuracy, understanding the FD optical characteristics is important. In this paper, we report the characteristics and installation of the new FDs and the performances of the FD components. The results of the monitored mirror reflectance during the observation time are also described in this report.
Keywords: Ultra high energy cosmic rays, Extensive air showers, Air fluorescence light detectors
Published in RUNG: 19.05.2020; Views: 2528; Downloads: 0
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Abstract: We present a measurement of the energy spectrum of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays performed by the Telescope Array experiment using monocular observations from its two new FADC-based fluorescence detectors. After a short description of the experiment, we describe the data analysis and event reconstruction procedures. Since the aperture of the experiment must be calculated by Monte Carlo simulation, we describe this calculation and the comparisons of simulated and real data used to verify the validity of the aperture calculation. Finally, we present the energy spectrum calculated from the merged monocular data sets of the two FADC-based detectors, and also the combination of this merged spectrum with an independent, previously published monocular spectrum measurement performed by Telescope Array’s third fluorescence detector [T. Abu-Zayyad et al., The energy spectrum of Telescope Array’s middle drum detector and the direct comparison to the high resolution fly’s eye experiment, Astroparticle Physics 39 (2012) 109-119, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2012.05.012, Available from: ]. This combined spectrum corroborates the recently published Telescope Array surface detector spectrum [T. Abu-Zayyad, et al., The cosmic-ray energy spectrum observed with the surface detector of the Telescope Array experiment, ApJ 768 (2013) L1, http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/768/1/L1, Available from: ] with independent systematic uncertainties.
Keywords: UHECR, Energy spectrum, Fluorescence, Monocular
Published in RUNG: 19.05.2020; Views: 2580; Downloads: 0
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Abstract: We report on a measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum by the Telescope Array Low-Energy Extension (TALE) air fluorescence detector (FD). The TALE air FD is also sensitive to the Cherenkov light produced by shower particles. Low-energy cosmic rays, in the PeV energy range, are detectable by TALE as Cherenkov events. Using these events, we measure the energy spectrum from a low energy of ~2 PeV to an energy greater than 100 PeV. Above 100 PeV, TALE can detect cosmic rays using air fluorescence. This allows for the extension of the measurement to energies greater than a few EeV. In this paper, we describe the detector, explain the technique, and present results from a measurement of the spectrum using ~1000 hr of observation. The observed spectrum shows a clear steepening near 10^17.1 eV, along with an ankle-like structure at 10^16.2 eV. These features present important constraints on the origin of galactic cosmic rays and on propagation models. The feature at 10^17.1 eV may also mark the end of the galactic cosmic ray flux and the start of the transition to extragalactic sources.
Keywords: astroparticle physics, cosmic rays, UHECR, energy spectrum
Published in RUNG: 30.04.2020; Views: 2668; Downloads: 0
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Abstract: We present the results of the search for ultra-high-energy photons with nine years of data from the Telescope Array surface detector. A multivariate classifier is built upon 16 reconstructed parameters of the extensive air shower. These parameters are related to the curvature and the width of the shower front, the steepness of the lateral distribution function, and the timing parameters of the waveforms sensitive to the shower muon content. A total number of two photon candidates found in the search is fully compatible with the expected background. The 95% CL limits on the diffuse flux of the photons with energies greater than 10^18.0, 10^18.5, 10^19.0, 10^19.5 and 10^20.0 eV are set at the level of 0.067, 0.012, 0.0036, 0.0013, correspondingly.
Keywords: Ultra-high-energy photons, Telescope array experiment, Extensive air showers
Published in RUNG: 30.04.2020; Views: 2978; Downloads: 0
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