Author: Andrea Biscoveanu
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ISBN:
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Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
The mass composition of cosmic rays is an important parameter for determining their origin. Using both fluorescence and surface detectors, The Pierre Auger Observatory measures the depth of shower maximum, Xmax, from which the mass of the primary particle can be inferred. The surface detector measurement, which is based on the principle of shower universality, increases the number of available statistics for Xmax by at least a factor of 10 since it is no longer limited by the low duty cycle of the fluorescence detector. We compare the energy and arrival directions determined using this new reconstruction to both the official surface and fluorescence detector reconstructions and present an event by event comparison of the \Xmax values calculated using both types of detectors for events with energies above 10^{18.8} eV. We use this new reconstruction method based on universality to conduct preliminary anisotropy studies discriminating by the mass of the primary particle.