Münster 2017 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 60: Kosmische Strahlung 5

T 60.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 28, 2017, 17:35–17:50, H 3

Composition observables for the photon search at 0.1 EeV at the Pierre Auger Observatory — •Nicolas Martin Gonzalez Pintos for the Pierre Auger collaboration — Instituto de Tecnologias en Deteccion y Astroparticulas, Argentina — Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie

The Pierre Auger Observatory studies the ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CR) which arrive to Earth with energies up to 300 EeV. Their composition varies between proton and iron, and no event compatible with a photon primary has been observed yet. The discovery of photons with energies around 1 EeV could be interesting since they are tracers of the highest-energy processes in the Universe. The Auger Collaboration has proposed several parameters to distinguish photon from hadron primaries. The muon component in extensive air showers (EAS) developed from the interaction between the CR and the atmosphere is one of the most promising approaches. The AMIGA detection system, an upgrade of the Auger Observatory, is composed by buried scintillation muon counters in a denser infilled area. It offers a unique oportunity to enhance the sensibility of the Observatory to a photon signal. In this work, several observables to distinguish a weak photon signal within the vast hadronic background will be explored. Information from the AMIGA muon counters and an associated surface detector will be combined to completely reject the hadronic background by using the Offline package developed by the Auger Collaboration. This criterion would be exploited in order to either find photons or to improve the existing upper limits to the photon flux.