Measurement of energy spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

0547594 - FZÚ 2022 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Verzi, V. … Total 3 authors
Measurement of energy spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.
Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics. Roč. 2017, č. 12 (2017), č. článku 12A103. ISSN 2050-3911
Research Infrastructure: AUGER-CZ - 90038
Keywords : ultra-high energy cosmic rays * energy spectrum
OECD category: Particles and field physics
Impact factor: 2.290, year: 2017
Method of publishing: Open access
https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptx082

Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are charged particles of energies above 1018 eV that originate outside the Galaxy. Because the flux of the UHECRs at Earth is very small, the only practical way of observing UHECRs is by measuring the extensive air showers produced by UHECRs in the atmosphere. This is done by using air fluorescence detectors and giant arrays of particle detectors on the ground. The PierreAuger Observatory (Auger) andTelescopeArray (TA) are two large cosmic ray experiments that use such techniques and cover 3000 and 700 km(2) areas on the ground, respectively. In this paper, we present the UHECR spectrum reported by TA, using an exposure of 6300 km(2) sr yr accumulated over 7 years of data taking, and the corresponding result of Auger, using 10 years of data with a total exposure exceeding 50 000 km(2) sr yr. We review the astrophysical interpretation of the two measurements, and discuss their systematic uncertainties.

Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0323806