Abstract
Knowledge of the mass composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is understood to be a salient component in answering the open questions in the field. The AugerPrime upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory aims to enhance its surface detector with the hardware necessary to reconstruct primary mass for individual events. This involves placing a scintillation-based detector with an active area of 3.8 m2 on top of each existing water-Cherenkov detector in its surface detector array. Here, we present the methods for simulating this Scintillator Surface Detector. These simulations have and will continue to aid in the interpretation of measurements with AugerPrime as well as the development and improvement of event reconstruction algorithms including primary mass.
Highlights
The Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger) [1], with its unprecedented exposure of over 60 000 km2 sr yr acquired during more than decade of data collection, has led to progress in the field of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) physics in a number of ways
The suppression in the energy spectrum above approximately 40 EeV has been confirmed to high precision [2, 3], and a large-scale dipole anisotropy above 8 EeV has been clearly observed [4]
Perhaps most notable is the trend towards heavier composition at the highest energies, which reopens questions regarding the origins of the flux suppression
Summary
The Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger) [1], with its unprecedented exposure of over 60 000 km sr yr acquired during more than decade of data collection, has led to progress in the field of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) physics in a number of ways. The long standing mystery as to the origins of UHECRs remains unsolved, and the additional complication of mass presents further challenges For this reason, the observatory is embarking on its phase by equipping its Surface Detector (SD) array with the hardware necessary to estimate the mass of UHECRs on an event-by-event basis. This is important to accurately reproduce the shielding above and below the active area of the scintillator bars. Precise definition of the position of the SSD relative to the WCD is important for preserving signal correlations, as these depend on the fraction of particles that intersect both detectors
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