Measurement of the muon content in air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Laura Collica (Author), Andrej Filipčič (Author), Gašper Kukec Mezek (Author), A. Saleh (Author), Samo Stanič (Author), M. Trini (Author), Darko Veberič (Author), Serguei Vorobiov (Author), Lili Yang (Author), Danilo Zavrtanik (Author), Marko Zavrtanik (Author)

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

ultra-high energy cosmic rays;muons;mass composition;hadronic interactions;Pierre Auger Observatory;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2015
Typology:	1.08 - Published Scientific Conference Contribution
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	539.1
COBISS:	4152315
ISSN:	1824-8039
Views:	3942
Downloads:	213
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

URN:	URN:SI:UNG
Type (COBISS):	Not categorized
Pages:	8 str.
Chronology:	2015
ID:	9128173