Particle physics at the Pierre Auger Observatory

0441439 - FZÚ 2015 RIV FR eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Ebr, Jan
Particle physics at the Pierre Auger Observatory.
MESON 2014 - International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction /13./. Les Ulis: EDP Sciences, 2014 - (Magiera, A.; Stroher, H.; Wronska, A.; Guaraldo, C.), "01021-1"-"01021-6". EPJ Web of Conferences, 81. ISSN 2100-014X.
[MESON 2014 - International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction. Kraków (PL), 29.05.2014-03.06.2014]
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) LG13007; GA MŠMT(CZ) 7AMB14AR005; GA ČR(CZ) GA14-17501S
Institutional support: RVO:68378271
Keywords : Pierre Auger Observatory * ultra-high energy * hadronic interactions
Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest detector of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) in the world. These particles initiate extensive air showers which can be detected by sampling the particles at ground level or observing the fluorescence light in the atmosphere - the Pierre Auger Observatory employs both these techniques. As the center-of-mass energies of the first interactions in the showers can be several orders of magnitude beyond the reach of the LHC, the UHECR provide an unique opportunity to study hadronic interactions. While the uncertainty in modeling these interactions is somewhat degenerate with the unknown composition of the primary beam, interaction models can be tested using data such as the depths of the maxima of the longitudinal development of the showers or their muon content. Moreover, using careful data selection, proton-air cross section at the c.m.s. energy of 57 TeV per nucleon-nucleon pair can be obtained.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0244440