2008/07/17 by L. Wiencke, Lawrence Wiencke
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Atmosphere (unit) #Auger #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Detector #Laser #Observatory #Pierre Auger Observatory #Radiation #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1742-6596/160/1/012037
6 pages, 11 figures XIII International Conference on Calorimetry in High Energy Physics
arxiv created 2008/07/17 · openalex publication_date 2009/04/01 · openalex created_date 2019/06/27 · arxiv updated 2019/08/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The Pierre Auger Cosmic-Ray Observatory uses the earth's atmosphere as a calorimeter to measure extensive air-showers created by particles of astrophysical origin. Some of these particles carry joules of energy. At these extreme energies, test beams are not available in the conventional sense. Yet understanding the energy response of the observatory is important. For example, the propagation distance of the highest energy cosmic-rays through the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) is predicted to be strong function of energy. This paper will discuss recently reported results from the observatory and the use of calibrated pulsed UV laser "test-beams" that simulate the optical signatures of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The status of the much larger 200,000 km 3 companion detector planned for the northern hemisphere will also be outlined.