Author: Flavia GesualdiPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Muon Content of Atmospheric Air Showers and the Mass Composition of Cosmic Rays
Author: Flavia GesualdiExtensive Air Showers
Author: M. V. S. RaoPublisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789810228880
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays carry information about their sources and the intervening medium apart from providing a beam of particles for studying certain features of high energy interactions currently inaccessible at man-made accelerators. They can at present be studied only via the extensive air showers (EAS's) they generate while passing through the Earth's atmosphere, since their fluxes are too low for the experiments of limited capability flown in balloons and satellites. The EAS is generated by a series of interactions of the primary cosmic ray and its progeny with the atmospheric nuclei. The exponential nature of the atmosphere spreads the air showers laterally over several hundreds of meters, thus enabling ground-based arrays of relatively inexpensive detectors to record and study them.This book describes the EAS phenomenology, the detectors and techniques used, and the latest results on the energy spectrum and composition of the primaries of EAS's and the results on high energy interactions obtained from EAS studies. It also describes the new TeV and PeV gamma ray astronomy (which has been developing over the past decade) and the newly emerging neutrino astronomy, which are related to the origin of cosmic rays.This book serves as an introduction as well as a reference for researchers in the field.
Mass Composition Studies of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays Through the Measurement of the Muon Production Depths at the Pierre Auger Observatory
Author: Laura CollicaPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Pierre Auger Observatory studies Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) physics. The flux of UHECRs is very low (less than 1 particle/km2-year) and their properties must be inferred from the measurements of the secondary particles that the cosmic ray primary produces in the atmosphere. These particles cascades are called Extensive Air Showers (EAS) and can be studied at ground by deploying detectors covering large areas. The EAS physics is complex, and the properties of secondary particles depend strongly on the first interaction, which takes place at an energy beyond the ones reached at accelerators. As a consequence, the analysis of UHECRs is subject to large uncertainties and hence many of their properties, in particular their composition, are still unclear. Two complementary techniques are used at Auger to detect EAS initiated by UHECRs: a 3000 km2 surface detector (SD) array of water Cherenkov tanks which samples particles at ground level and fluorescence detectors (FD) which collect the ultraviolet light emitted by the de-excitation of nitrogen nuclei in the atmosphere, and can operate only in clear, moonless nights. The main goal of this thesis is the measurement of UHECR mass composition using data from the SD of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Measuring the cosmic ray composition at the highe-st energies is of fundamental importance for particle physics and astrophysics. Indeed, it allows to explore the hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies, and to discriminate between different scenarios of origin and propagation of cosmic rays.
Arrival time distributions of muons from extensive air showers as signature of the mass composition of cosmic rays
Author: Arrival Time Distributions of Muons from Extensive Air Showers as Signature of the Mass Composition of Cosmic Rays
Author: Heinrich RebelMass Composition Studies of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays Through the Measurement of the Muon Production Depths at the Pierre Auger Observatory
Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 143
Book Description
The Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger) in Argentina studies Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) physics. The flux of cosmic rays at these energies (above 1018 eV) is very low (less than 100 particle/km2-year) and UHECR properties must be inferred from the measurements of the secondary particles that the cosmic ray primary produces in the atmosphere. These particles cascades are called Extensive Air Showers (EAS) and can be studied at ground by deploying detectors covering large areas. The EAS physics is complex, and the properties of secondary particles depend strongly on the first interaction, which takes place at an energy beyond the ones reached at accelerators. As a consequence, the analysis of UHECRs is subject to large uncertainties and hence many of their properties, in particular their composition, are still unclear. Two complementary techniques are used at Auger to detect EAS initiated by UHE- CRs: a 3000 km2 surface detector (SD) array of water Cherenkov tanks which samples particles at ground level and fluorescence detectors (FD) which collect the ultraviolet light emitted by the de-excitation of nitrogen nuclei in the atmosphere, and can operate only in clear, moonless nights. Auger is the largest cosmic rays detector ever built and it provides high-quality data together with unprecedented statistics. The main goal of this thesis is the measurement of UHECR mass composition using data from the SD of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Measuring the cosmic ray composition at the highest energies is of fundamental importance from the astrophysical point of view, since it could discriminate between different scenarios of origin and propagation of cosmic rays. Moreover, mass composition studies are of utmost importance for particle physics. As a matter of fact, knowing the composition helps in exploring the hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies, inaccessible to present accelerator experiments.
Arrival Time Distributions of Muons from Extensive Air Showers as Signature of the Mass Composition of Cosmic Rays
Author: H. RebelMass Sensitive Observables of Simulated Cosmic Ray Air Showers
Author: Benjamin S. FlaggsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Extensive cosmic ray research has been performed over the course of the last century, yet the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays remains unknown. One way progress is made towards determining the origin of these ultra-high energy charged particles is through precise measurements of their mass composition. However, the highest energy cosmic rays must be detected indirectly via cosmic ray air showers. Therefore the mass of the primary cosmic ray must be derived from information of air shower observables sensitive to the primary particle mass. Specifically, these mass sensitive observables include the depth of shower maximum, and parameters related to the relative size of the muonic component of the air shower. In this thesis, CORSIKA simulations of cosmic ray air showers are used to study the separation power between proton and iron primary cosmic rays, based on combined knowledge of various mass sensitive observables. Specifically, the energy and zenith dependence of observables are investigated in relation to their impact on the proton-iron separation power. For the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the difference in separation power between high energy penetrating muons and low energy surface muons is investigated. Additionally, the effect of low energy surface muons on proton-iron separation power was studied for the Pierre Auger Observatory and compared to the low energy surface muon separation power obtained from IceCube.
Energy Spectrum and Mass Composition of Cosmic Rays and How to Publish Air-Shower Data
Author: Sven SchooThe Mass Composition of Cosmic Rays Above 1 EeV Inferred Using the Spread in Arrival Times of Air Shower Particles
Author: Benjamin Edward SmithPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description