Dortmund 2021 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 46: Cosmic Rays II

T 46.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 17:15–17:30, Tu

Search for ultra-high energy photons with the AugerPrime upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory — •Paulo Ferreira, Thomas Bretz, and Thomas Hebbeker for the Pierre Auger collaboration — III. Physikalisches Institut A, RWTH Aachen University

The Pierre Auger Observatory, the world's largest experiment for the detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, consists of an array of 1660 water Cherenkov detectors and 27 fluorescence telescopes, allowing for a hybrid reconstruction of air showers. An air shower detected by the observatory can have its origin in nuclei, but also in very energetic photons. Analyzing the photon flux is crucial to understand the flux suppression of cosmic rays above 50 EeV. No photon-induced air shower has yet been detected by the Pierre Auger Collaboration. While recent studies allowed for better upper limits for the photon flux at ultra-high energies, they are constrained by the current discrimination power between different types of primary particles. AugerPrime, an on-going upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory, brings, among other improvements, an additional scintillator detector to be installed on top of each water Cherenkov detector station. Since the scintillator's signals are mostly dominated by the electromagnetic part of the shower and the water Cherenkov detectors by the muonic one, their combination offers a better characterization of the shower. Through this, new variables which increase the sensitivity to primary photons are aimed at. As such, a new analysis strategy exploiting the additional information obtained using AugerPrime has been developed.