Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2010
Volume 55, Number 1
Saturday–Tuesday, February 13–16, 2010; Washington, DC
Session S13: UHECR Detection Techniques and Prospects |
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Sponsoring Units: DAP Room: Washington 6 |
Monday, February 15, 2010 3:30PM - 3:42PM |
S13.00001: Search for Long-lived particles in cosmic rays Mario Camuyrano, Mark Adams High energy cosmic ray air showers are capable of producing massive particles, such as those predicted in SUSY models. A search was carried out for long-lived charged particles that can be observed as a second component in the decay spectrum of stopped cosmic ray muons. Using plastic scintillation counters from a QuarkNet cosmic ray large array project, decays were studied as a function of the number of muons detected in the shower. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 3:42PM - 3:54PM |
S13.00002: Radar Detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays Abaz Kryemadhi, Michael Bakunov, Alex Maslov, Alina Novokovskaya We revisit the radar echo technique as an approach to detect ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR). The UHECR extensive air showers produce disk-like ionization fronts propagating with a relativistic speed and creating fast decaying plasma. We study the reflection of a radio wave, such as the one from a radar transmitter or commercial radio and TV station, from the ionization front. The reflected wave will be frequency up-shifted due to relativistic Doppler effect. The amplitude of the reflected wave depends strongly on velocity of the front, and density and collision frequency of the plasma behind it. The returned power will be shown for typical extensive air shower parameters. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 3:54PM - 4:06PM |
S13.00003: Status and prospects of the AMBER experiment for detecting ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers through molecular bremsstrahlung P.S. Allison, X. Gao, P.W. Gorham, J. Kennedy, L. Macchiarulo, C. Miki, L.L. Ruckman, G.S. Varner, J.J. Beatty, J. Davis, E.W. Grashorn, N. Griffith, J. Mayer, C. Morris The Air-shower Molecular Bremsstrahlung Radiometer (AMBER) is a novel experiment intended to open a new detection mechanism for ultrahigh energy cosmic ray showers motivated by laboratory and accelerator experiments which show evidence of partially coherent emission in the microwave region from an electromagnetic cascade. This would allow the longitudinal measurement of an air shower in a similar manner to a nitrogen fluorescence detector, but with a much higher duty cycle and without uncertainty due to variable atmospheric attenuation. Prototype detectors are being developed by the Ohio State University and the University of Hawaii-Manoa for deployment at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Mendoza, Argentina to confirm and calibrate the emission by using the surface and fluorescence detectors to trigger directly on cosmic ray air showers. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 4:06PM - 4:18PM |
S13.00004: The MIDAS experiment: MIcrowave Detection of Air Showers Pedro Facal, Martina Bohacova, Maria Monasor, Paolo Privitera, Luis C. Reyes, Cristopher Williams Recent measurements suggest that extensive air showers initiated by high energy cosmic rays (above 1 EeV) emit signals in the microwave band of the EM spectrum caused by the collisions of the free-electrons with the atmospheric neutral molecules in the plasma produced by the passage of the shower. Such emission is isotropic and could allow the detection of air showers with 100\% duty cycle and a calorimetric-like energy measurement - a significant improvement over current detection techniques. We have built a MIDAS prototype, which consists of a 4.5 m diameter antenna with a cluster of 55 feed-horns in the 4 GHz range, covering a $10^{\circ} \times 10^{\circ}$ field of view, with self-triggering capability. The details of the prototype and first results will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 4:18PM - 4:30PM |
S13.00005: Measurement of absolute fluorescence yield in air by AIRFLY Martina Bohacova, Carlos Hojvat, Frederick Kuehn, Pedro Facal, Maria Monasor, Paolo Privitera, Cristopher Williams Fluorescence detection of UHECR air showers is a widely used technique. Precise knowledge of the air fluorescence yield in dependence on the atmospheric conditions in the region of production propagates into the primary cosmic ray energy reconstruction. Relative measurements, such as dependence on pressure, temperature, humidity, energy of the secondary particles and nitrogen emission spectrum have already been studied in the previous measurement campaigns of the experiment AIRFLY. A precise measurement of the absolute fluorescence yield of the 337 nm line - the most prominent line in the nitrogen spectrum - has been recently performed at the Fermilab MTest beam facility. The experimental method and first results are presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 4:30PM - 4:42PM |
S13.00006: Upgrades to the LIDAR atmospheric monitoring detectors for the Pierre Auger Observatory Maria Becker The LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems at the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory are being upgraded with near-field detectors to improve atmospheric measurements within the first kilometer in front of each LIDAR station. The upgrades have involved designing, simulating, constructing, and installing new LIDAR telescopes, which use small spherical mirrors and photomultiplier tubes to collect and measure back-scattered laser light. Data collected by the near-field detectors will provide a more complete atmospheric density profile between detected air showers and the fluorescence detectors (FDs), resulting in a more accurate calibration of the energy measurements of primary cosmic rays as determined by the FDs. The near-field LIDAR detector design and preliminary results of data analysis will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 4:42PM - 4:54PM |
S13.00007: Enhancements of the Southern Pierre Auger Observatory Ralf Ulrich The southern Pierre Auger observatory in Argentina takes data routinely now, and the first physics results have been obtained and published. The successful operation of the experiment is soon going to be enhanced by the low energy extension HEAT and the muon detector system AMIGA. Both of these extensions individually have a large potential to answer further questions for example concerning the high energy galactic cosmic ray component and the transition from galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, February 15, 2010 4:54PM - 5:06PM |
S13.00008: The Pierre Auger Northern Observatory Gregory Snow The Pierre Auger collaboration plans to build the northern part of the Observatory in southeast Colorado. Results from the southern section of the Auger Observatory, which was completed in 2008, imply a scientific imperative to create a much larger acceptance for the extremely rare cosmic rays of energy above a few times 10$^{19}$ eV. The plan for Auger North is to cover an area greater than 20,000 km$^{2}$, seven times the area of Auger South in Argentina. The motivation for Auger North and the status of preparations will be presented including: R{\&}D work at the Colorado site on a small surface detector array; atmospheric monitoring measurements; R{\&}D on new electronics and communications equipment; and outreach and relations with the local community. [Preview Abstract] |
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