Computer Science
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007phdt........25h&link_type=abstract
Proquest Dissertations And Theses 2007. Section 0031, Part 0606 196 pages; [Ph.D. dissertation].United States -- California: Un
Computer Science
Cosmic Rays, High-Energy Cosmic Rays, Big Bang, Gamma Rays, Cosmic Microwave Background, Pierre Auger Observatory, Xmax
Scientific paper
I present a detailed investigation of the composition of cosmic rays with energies greater than 1 × 10 19 eV with the Pierre Auger Observatory. Initial studies were found to indicate that a model of pure proton primaries was inconsistent with the data collected. A detailed method is developed to use observables from the surface detector as proxies for the depth of shower maximum--the depth in g cm -2 where the number of electrons and positrons is greatest. The depth of shower maximum (known as X max ) is closely associated with the mass of the primary cosmic ray. The estimates from the surface detector are compared, using the hybrid technique, to the subset of showers containing direct measurements of X max by the fluorescence detector. Extending the surface detector measurements to the highest energies shows that primary cosmic rays are trending away from the expectation for a pure proton stream toward an increasingly heavy mixture of elements.
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