Abstract
The Pierre Auger Observatory has been designed to investigate the origin and nature of the ultra high energy cosmic rays using a hybrid detection technique. A review of selected results is presented, with the emphasis given to the measurement of energy spectrum, mass composition and arrival directions.
Highlights
Understanding the sources, nature and propagation properties of the cosmic rays at ultra high energies (E > 1018 eV) is one of the key questions in astroparticle physics
A review of selected results is presented, with the emphasis given to the measurement of energy spectrum, mass composition and arrival directions
Above 4 1019 eV, a cut-off in the cosmic ray flux is expected, due to photo-pion production of extragalactic protons in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the same feature could arise when reaching the limits in the maximum energy of the sources
Summary
Understanding the sources, nature and propagation properties of the cosmic rays at ultra high energies (E > 1018 eV) is one of the key questions in astroparticle physics. The analysis of the arrival directions and their anisotropy can give further insight into the sources and provide information about the magnetic fields which the ultra high energy (UHE) cosmic rays experience during their travel to Earth. The Pierre Auger Observatory has been designed to investigate the origin and the nature of ultra high energy cosmic rays. It is located in Malargue, Argentina, and consists of a surface array (SD) of 1660 water Cherenkov stations on an area of 3000 km, overlooked by 27 air fluorescence telescopes (FD) grouped in four sites [4]. Thanks to the possibility of combining the information from the surface array, measuring the lateral distributions of secondary particles at the ground, and the fluorescence telescopes, observing the longitudinal profile, the reconstruction capabilities are enhanced with respect to the individual detector components
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