Search results for "ultra high energy cosmic rays"
showing 10 items of 22 documents
Anisotropy and chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory
2011
The Pierre Auger Collaboration has reported evidence for anisotropy in the distribution of arrival directions of the cosmic rays with energies $E>E_{th}=5.5\times 10^{19}$ eV. These show a correlation with the distribution of nearby extragalactic objects, including an apparent excess around the direction of Centaurus A. If the particles responsible for these excesses at $E>E_{th}$ are heavy nuclei with charge $Z$, the proton component of the sources should lead to excesses in the same regions at energies $E/Z$. We here report the lack of anisotropies in these directions at energies above $E_{th}/Z$ (for illustrative values of $Z=6,\ 13,\ 26$). If the anisotropies above $E_{th}$ are du…
Search for correlations between the arrival directions of IceCube neutrino events and ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected by the Pierre Auger Obser…
2016
This paper presents the results of different searches for correlations between very high-energy neutrino candidates detected by IceCube and the highest-energy cosmic rays measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array. We first consider samples of cascade neutrino events and of high-energy neutrino-induced muon tracks, which provided evidence for a neutrino flux of astrophysical origin, and study their cross-correlation with the ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) samples as a function of angular separation. We also study their possible directional correlations using a likelihood method stacking the neutrino arrival directions and adopting different assumptions on the size…
A search for point sources of EeV neutrons
2012
A thorough search of the sky exposed at the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory reveals no statistically significant excess of events in any small solid angle that would be indicative of a flux of neutral particles from a discrete source. The search covers from −90◦ to +15◦ in declination using four different energy ranges above 1 EeV (1018 eV). The method used in this search is more sensitive to neutrons than to photons. The upper limit on a neutron flux is derived for a dense grid of directions for each of the four energy ranges. These results constrain scenarios for the production of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays in the Galaxy.
A search for anisotropy in the arrival directions of ultra high energy cosmic rays recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory
2012
Observations of cosmic ray arrival directions made with the Pierre Auger Observatory have previously provided evidence of anisotropy at the 99% CL using the correlation of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with objects drawn from the Véron-Cetty Véron catalog. In this paper we report on the use of three catalog independent methods to search for anisotropy. The 2pt–L, 2pt+ and 3pt methods, each giving a different measure of selfclustering in arrival directions, were tested on mock cosmic ray data sets to study the impacts of sample size and magnetic smearing on their results, accounting for both angular and energy resolutions. If the sources of UHECRs follow the same large scale structu…
Search for First Harmonic Modulation in the Right Ascension Distribution of Cosmic Rays Detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory
2011
We present the results of searches for dipolar-type anisotropies in different energy ranges above 2.5 × 1017 eV with the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory, reporting on both the phase and the amplitude measurements of the first harmonic modulation in the right-ascension distribution. Upper limits on the amplitudes are obtained, which provide the most stringent bounds at present, being below 2% at 99% C.L. for EeV energies. We also compare our results to those of previous experiments as well as with some theoretical expectations.
Extensive air showers and diffused Cherenkov light detection: The ULTRA experiment
2007
Abstract The Uv Light Transmission and Reflection in the Atmosphere (ULTRA) experiment has been designed to provide quantitative measurements of the backscattered Cherenkov signal associated to the Extensive Air Showers (EAS) at the impact point on the Earth surface. The knowledge of such information will test the possibility to detect the diffused Cherenkov light spot from space within the Ultra high-energy cosmic ray observation. The Cherenkov signal is necessary to give an absolute reference for the track, allowing the measurement of the shower maximum and easing the separation between neutrino and hadronic showers. In this paper we discuss the experimental set-up with detailed informati…
EUSO-A Space mission searching for Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays and neutrinos
2004
The “Extreme Universe Space Observatory – EUSO” is an international, multi-agency mission, led by ESA, aimed at measuring from a Low Altitude Earth Orbiting Space Platform the flux and investigating the nature and origin of the charged and neutral particles of the Extreme Energy Cosmic Ray (EECR) with energy above the conventional value (E = 5×10 19 eV) of the Greisen Zatsepin and Kuzmin (GZK) effect E GZK = 5×10 19 eV). EUSO will pioneer the observation from Space of EECR-induced Extensive Air Showers (EASs), making measurements of the primary energy, arrival direction and possibly composition of the incoming flux by using a sensitive area and target volume far greater than achievable from…
The exposure of the hybrid detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
2010
The Pierre Auger Observatory is a detector for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. It consists of a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level and a fluorescence detector to measure the development of air showers in the atmosphere above the array. The ‘‘hybrid” detection mode combines the information from the two subsystems. We describe the determination of the hybrid exposure for events observed by the fluorescence telescopes in coincidence with at least one water-Cherenkov detector of the surface array. A detailed knowledge of the time dependence of the detection operations is crucial for an accurate evaluation of the exposure. We discuss the relevance of monitoring data coll…
Observation of inclined EeV air showers with the radio detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
2018
With the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we have observed the radio emission from 561 extensive air showers with zenith angles between 60 and 84. In contrast to air showers with more vertical incidence, these inclined air showers illuminate large ground areas of several km2 with radio signals detectable in the 30 to 80 MHz band. A comparison of the measured radio-signal amplitudes with Monte Carlo simulations of a subset of 50 events for which we reconstruct the energy using the Auger surface detector shows agreement within the uncertainties of the current analysis. As expected for forward-beamed radio emission undergoing no significant absorption or sc…
Data-driven estimation of the invisible energy of cosmic ray showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory
2019
The determination of the primary energy of extensive air showers using the fluorescence detection technique requires an estimation of the energy carried away by particles that do not deposit all their energy in the atmosphere. This estimation is typically made using Monte Carlo simulations and thus depends on the assumed primary particle mass and on model predictions for neutrino and muon production. In this work we present a new method to obtain the invisible energy from events detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The method uses measurements of the muon number at ground level, and it allows us to significantly reduce the systematic uncertainties related to the mass composition and th…