The Pierre Auger Observatory is currently the largest observatory of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. Having more data collected than any previous experiment and using a hybrid technique, it can provide important information to unveil the origin and composition of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. Here, we report some results of the Pierre Auger Observatory, namely on the energy spectrum, average depth of the shower maximum and its fluctuations (both sensitive to primary mass composition) and number of muons at ground.
Extensive air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays are sensitive to the details of hadronic interactions models, so we present the main results obtained using the data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The depth at which the maximum of the electromagnetic development takes place is the most sensitive parameter to infer the nature of the cosmic rays. However, the hadronic models cannot describe consistently the maximum and the muon measurements at energies higher than those reached at the LHC.
The characteristics of extensive air showers are sensitive to the details of hadronic interactions at energies and in kinematic regions beyond those tested by human-made accelerators. Uncertainties on extrapolations of the hadronic interaction models in these regions hamper the interpretation of the ultra high energy cosmic ray data in terms of primary mass composition. We report on how the Pierre Auger Observatory is able to constrain the hadronic interaction models by measuring the muon content and muon production depth of air showers and also by measuring the proton-air cross section for pa…
Several methods developed within the Pierre Auger Collaboration for the estimation of the muonic component of the Extensive Air Showers observed in the surface Cherenkov detectors are described. The results derived from the data show a deficit of muons predicted by the current hadronic interactions models at ultra-high energies.
The Pierre Auger Observatory has already collected more ultra high energy cosmic ray data than all the previous experiments. With an hybrid detection technique, it can provide coherent results on the flux, energy spectrum and arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays, and characterize the extensive air showers in order to probe the primary particle characteristics and its interactions. These results will be presented from the point of view of particle physics.
We report a measurement of the proton-air cross-section for particle production at the center-of-mass energy per nucleon of 57 TeV. This is derived from the distribution of the depths of shower maxima observed with the Pierre Auger Observatory: systematic uncertainties are studied in detail. Analysing the tail of the distribution of the shower maxima, a proton-air cross-section of $[505\pm22(stat)^{+28}_{-36}(sys)]$ mb is found.
In 2018, the IceCube collaboration reported evidence for the identification of a blazar as an astrophysical neutrino source. That evidence is briefly summarised here before focusing on the prospects of tau neutrino physics in IceCube, both at high energies (astrophysical neutrinos) and at lower energies (atmospheric neutrino oscillations). In addition, future neutrino detectors such as KM3NeT and the IceCube Upgrade and their tau neutrino physics potential are discussed. Finally, the detection mechanism for high-energy (tau) neutrinos in the Pierre Auger Observatory and the resulting flux uppe…
The muon content of extensive air showers is an observable sensitive to the primary composition and to the hadronic interaction properties. The Pierre Auger Observatory uses water-Cherenkov detectors to measure particle densities at the ground and therefore is sensitive to the muon content of air showers. We present here a method which allows us to estimate the muon production depths by exploiting the measurement of the muon arrival times at the ground recorded with the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The analysis is performed in a large range of zenith angles, thanks to the …
The Pierre Auger Collaboration discovered, in a solid angle of radius about 18\degree, a local group of cosmic rays having energies in the region E0 \geq 5.5\times1019 eV and coming from the region of the Gen A radio galaxy, whose galactic coordinates are lG = 309.5\degree and bG = 19.4\degree. Near it, there is the Centaur supercluster of galaxies, its galactic coordinates being lG = 302.4\degree and bG = 21.6\degree. It is noteworthy that the Great Attractor, which may have a direct bearing on the observed picture, is also there.
I describe some of the results on ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays that have been obtained with the Pierre Auger Observatory. These include measurements of the spectrum, composition and anisotropies. Possible astrophysical scenarios that account for these results are discussed.
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays are the most energetic particles directly measured, reaching orders of magnitude above those attained in the LHC. The Pierre Auger Observatory is shedding light onto the long-standing mysteries of their nature and origin. The present paper briefly reviews the latest results: the energy spectrum and mass composition of UHECR, limits on the fluxes of photons and neutrinos, the study of anisotropies in the arrival directions of UHECS, and finally the constraints on high energy hadronic models. The paper will finish with the upgrade of the Observaotry: AugerPrime.
The hybrid design of the Pierre Auger Observatory allows for the measurement of a number of properties of extensive air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. By comparing these measurements to predictions from air shower simulations, it is possible to both infer the cosmic ray's mass composition and test hadronic interactions beyond the energies reached by accelerators. In this paper, we will present a compilation of results of air shower measurements by Pierre Auger Observatory which are sensitive to the properties of hadronic interactions and can be used to constrain the hadron…
The generalized solution for the warp factor of the Randall-Sundrum metric is presented which is symmetric with respect to both branes and explicitly periodic in extra variable. Given that the curvature of the 5-dimensional space-time is small, the expected rate of neutrino-induced inclined events at the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory is calculated. Both the "downward-going" (DG) and "Earth-skimming" (ES) neutrinos are considered. By comparing the expected event rate with the recent Auger data on searching for neutrino candidates, the lower bound on the fundamental gravity sc…
The Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina provides the largest data sample of the cosmic ray events with energy above 10$^{18}$ eV. These high energy events can be used to test our understanding of the hadronic interactions at energies beyond the reach of colliders and to probe the basic properties of these interactions such as the inelastic cross-section of proton-air collisions. The combination of an array of surface detectors and the fluorescence telescopes of the Pierre Auger Observatory reduces significantly the dependency of the shower energy estimation on MC simulations. Despite that, t…
Using measured events from the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory, an unbiased distribution of the atmospheric slant depths where showers reach their maxima has been obtained. Analyzing the tail of this distribution the proton-air cross-section for particle production at center-of-mass energies per nucleon of 57 TeV is determined to be [505$\pm$22(stat)+28$-$36(syst)] mb. Systematic uncertainties in the analysis arise from the limited knowledge of the primary mass composition, the need to use shower simulations and the selection of events. For the purpose of making compariso…
While the Pierre Auger Observatory is a very successful instrument for ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) detection, it is increasingly used as part of various types of multi-messenger searches, in which it contributes with searches for air showers induced by atomic nuclei, neutrons, photons, and neutrinos. We present an overview of the multi-messenger activities of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The overview includes: searches for ultra-high energy photons and neutrinos detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory in coincidence with gravitational wave events detected by LIGO and Virgo; searches…
The average profiles of cosmic ray shower development as a function of atmospheric depth are measured for the first time with the Fluorescence Detectors at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The profile shapes are well reproduced by the Gaisser-Hillas parametrization at the 1% level in a 500 g/cm2 interval around the shower maximum, for cosmic rays with log(E/eV) > 17.8. The results are quantified with two shape parameters, measured as a function of energy. The average profiles carry information on the primary cosmic ray and its high energy hadronic interactions. The shape parameters predicted by t…
The Pierre Auger Observatory has by now achieved an exposure of order $10^5~{\rm km}^2$ sr yr, exploring about 85% of the sky. In this talk, I will review some of the recent results, including the detailed measurements of the features in the cosmic ray spectrum, the study of the anisotropies in the cosmic ray arrival directions both at large and intermediate angular scales, the inferred mass composition, and multimessenger searches.
We report on studies of the composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger Observatory. The detection of longitudinal air shower profiles with the fluorescence detector is described and the measurement of the average shower maximum as a function of energy is presented. Furthermore, mass sensitive parameters that can be obtained from the observatory's surface detector data are discussed.
We describe the analysis of longitudinal air shower profiles as measured by the fluorescence detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory and present the measurement of the depth of maximum of extensive air showers, Xmax, with energies >10^18 eV. The measured energy evolution of the average of Xmax and its fluctuations are compared to air shower simulations for different primary particles.
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest facility in the world to study ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. It has a hybrid detection technique that combines the observation of the longitudinal development of extensive air showers and the measurement of their particles at the ground. This capability has opened the possibility to probe hadronic interactions taking place at energies well beyond those accessible by human-made accelerators. In this report, we present a selection of the latest results on hadronic interactions with measurements from the Pierre Auger Observatory. These data span over t…
In this paper, the connection between Pierre Auger Observatory measurements and photons is discussed. Three cases are presented: the search for photons in the ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray radiation, the impact of the photon background in the cosmic ray propagation and the role of the ambient photon fields surrounding cosmic accelerators.
In the present paper, it is assumed that there exist two dark matter particles: superheavy dark matter particles (SHDM), whose mass $\sim$ inflaton mass, and light fermion dark matter (DM) particles which are the ultrahigh energy (UHE) products of its decay. The Earth will be taken as a detector to directly search for the UHE DM particles. These upward-going particles, which pass through the Earth and air and interact with nuclei, can be detected by the fluorescence detectors (FD) of the Pierre Auger observatory (Auger), via fluorescent photons due to the development of an EAS. The numbers and…
This paper presents a search for correlation in the arrival directions of 2190 neutrino candidate events detected in 2007-2008 by the ANTARES telescope, and 69 ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) observed by the Pierre Auger Observatory between January 1st 2004 and December 31st 2009. No significant correlation was found. The corresponding 90% C.L. upper limit on the neutrino flux from each observed UHECR direction (assuming an equal flux from all of them and for $E^{-2}$ energy spectrum) is 4.99$\times10{^{-8}}$ GeV cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$.
The energy spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays above 10$^{18}$ eV is measured using the hybrid events collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory between November 2005 and September 2010. The large exposure of the Observatory allows the measurement of the main features of the energy spectrum with high statistics. Full Monte Carlo simulations of the extensive air showers (based on the CORSIKA code) and of the hybrid detector response are adopted here as an independent cross check of the standard analysis (Phys. Lett. B 685, 239 (2010)). The dependence on mass composition and other systemati…
The characteristics of an extensive air shower derive from both the mass of the primary ultra-high-energy cosmic ray that seeds its development and the properties of the hadronic interactions that feed it. With its hybrid detector design, the Pierre Auger Observatory measures both the longitudinal development of showers in the atmosphere and the lateral distribution of particles arriving at the ground, from which a number of parameters are calculated and compared with predictions from current hadronic interaction models tuned to LHC data. At present, a tension exists concerning the production …
The Pierre Auger Observatory has a unique potential to search for ultra-high energy photons (above ~1 EeV). First experimental limits on photons were obtained during construction of the southern part of the Observatory. Remarkably, already these limits have proven useful to falsify proposals about the origin of cosmic rays, and to perform fundamental physics by constraining Lorentz violation. A final discovery of photons at the upper end of the electromagnetic spectrum is likely to impact various branches of physics and astronomy.
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest extensive air shower detector. Based on a hybrid system, this experiment measures the longitudinal shower development and the particles at the ground. This detection system allows the extraction of the p-air cross-section at energies much higher than the ones accessible by current colliders. It is also possible to test hadronic interaction models using correlations between different air shower observables, like the depth of shower maximum and the muon number at the ground and their fluctuations. Thanks to the low energy extension of the Pierre Auger …
The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for cosmic rays with E > 1EeV. From the gathered data we estimated the proton-proton cross-section at sqrt(s) = 55 TeV and tested other features of the hadronic interaction models, which use extrapolations from the LHC energy. The electromagnetic component, carrying most of the energy of the shower, is precisely measured using fluorescence telescopes, while the hadronic back- bone of the shower is indirectly tested by measuring the muons arriving to the surface detector. The analyses show that models fail to describe these two components consis…
In this paper some recent results from the Pierre Auger Collaboration are presented. These are the measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays over a wide range of energies ($10^{17.5}$ to above $10^{20}$ eV), studies of the cosmic-ray mass composition with the fluorescence and surface detector of the Observatory, the observation of a large-scale anisotropy in the arrival direction of cosmic rays above 8 x $10^{18}$ eV and indications of anisotropy at intermediate angular scales above 4 x $10^{19}$ eV. The astrophysical implications of the spectrum and composition results are also discus…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest observatory of high-energy cosmic rays. It is located in Argentina and has been taking data since January 2004. Extensive air showers initiated by cosmic rays are measured by the hybrid detector, which combines the sampling of particle density at ground by water-Cherenkov tanks and the measurement of atmospheric fluorescence light by telescopes. New detection techniques, like radio and microwave measurement, are also being tested. Results regarding the energy spectrum, mass composition and arrival directions of cosmic rays are presented here.
Over the past decade the multi-messenger astrophysics has emerged as a distinct discipline, providing unique insights into the properties of high-energy phenomena in the Universe. The Pierre Auger Observatory, located in Malargüe, Argentina, is the world's largest cosmic ray detector sensitive to photons, neutrinos, and hadrons at ultra-high energies. Using its data, stringent limits on photon and neutrino fluxes at EeV energies have been obtained. The collaboration uses the excellent angular resolution and the neutrino identification capabilities of the Observatory for follow-up studies of ev…
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array: Joint Contribution to the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017)
The scientific achievements of the Pierre Auger Collaboration cover diverse and complementary fields of research. The search for the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is based on the measurement of the energy spectrum and mass composition of the primaries, on studies of multi-messengers, and on extensive anisotropy searches. With the collected data it is also possible to explore the characteristics of hadronic interactions at energies unreachable at human-made accelerators, and to assess the existence of non-standard physics effects. A selection of the latest results is presente…
We report on the observations of cosmic rays with energies > 1.0 EeV from Jan 2004 to April 2009 by the Pierre Auger Observatory. During this period the Observatory has grown from about 300 surface detectors to about 1600 upon its completion in November 2008. The 1600 surface detectors are overlooked by 24 fluorescence telescopes. We report on measurements of the cosmic ray spectrum, the arrival directions and the elongation rate. We also report limits for the photon and neutrino components of this cosmic radiation.
The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory measures the atmospheric depth, $X_{max}$, where the longitudinal profile of the high energy air showers reaches its maximum. This is sensitive to the nuclear mass composition of the cosmic rays. Due to its hybrid design, the Pierre Auger Observatory also provides independent experimental observables obtained from the Surface Detector for the study of the nuclear mass composition. We present $X_{max}$-distributions and an update of the average and RMS values in different energy bins and compare them to the predictions for different nucl…
We derive lower bounds on the density of sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from the lack of significant clustering in the arrival directions of the highest energy events detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The density of uniformly distributed sources of equal intrinsic intensity was found to be larger than $\sim (0.06 - 5) \times 10^{-4}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ at 95% CL, depending on the magnitude of the magnetic deflections. Similar bounds, in the range $(0.2 - 7) \times 10^{-4}$ Mpc$^{-3}$, were obtained for sources following the local matter distribution.
To interpret the mean depth of cosmic ray air shower maximum and its dispersion, we parametrize those two observables as functions of the first two moments of the $\ln A$ distribution. We examine the goodness of this simple method through simulations of test mass distributions. The application of the parameterization to Pierre Auger Observatory data allows one to study the energy dependence of the mean $\ln A$ and of its variance under the assumption of selected hadronic interaction models. We discuss possible implications of these dependences in term of interaction models and astrophysical co…
The aim of the Pierre Auger Observatory is the investigation of the nature of cosmic ray particles at ultra-high energies. It can simultaneously observe the longitudinal air shower development in the atmosphere as well as particle densities on the ground. While there are no dedicated muon detectors, techniques have been developed to estimate the number of muons, $N_μ$, produced by air showers. Both, the longitudinal development, in particular the depth of the shower maximum, $X_{\rm max}$, and the muon content of air showers are highly sensitive to hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies.…
The Pierre Auger Observatory, recently completed, has been operational since 2004. As a hybrid experiment, it allows for a wide range of measurements of UHECR-induced extensive air showers (EAS), including measurements of the EAS particle content on ground which is sensitive to high-energy hadronic interactions. We present the results of several independent measurements of the EAS muon content on ground in Auger data at a primary energy of 10 EeV. We discuss implications on high-energy hadronic interaction models and cosmic ray composition.
We report a measurement of the flux of cosmic rays with unprecedented precision and statistics using data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. Based on fluorescence observations in coincidence with at least one station of the surface detector we derive a spectrum for energies above 1 EeV. We also report on the energy spectra obtained with the surface detector array. The spectral features are presented in detail and the impact of systematic uncertainties on these features are addressed.
We present the results of a search for clustering among the highest energy events detected by the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 August 2007. We analyse the autocorrelation function, in which the number of pairs with angular separation within a given angle is compared with the expectation from an isotropic distribution. Performing a scan in energy above 30 EeV and in angles smaller than 30 degrees, the most significant excess of pairs appears for E > 57 EeV and for a wide range of separation angles, between 9 and 22 degrees. An excess like this h…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are studied with giant ground-based detector systems recording extensive air showers, induced by cosmic ray particles in the atmosphere. Research at the Pierre Auger Observatory - the largest of such detectors ever built -- largely contributed to a number of breakthroughs and dramatically advanced our understanding of UHECRs. Nonetheless, the results so far are still inconclusive as neither have the sources of these most energetic particles known in the Universe been determined, nor has the origin of the unambiguously established cosmic ray flux suppressi…
The Pierre Auger Observatory, located in Argentina, provides an unprecedented integrated aperture for the search of photons with energy above 100 PeV. In this contribution recent results are presented including the diffuse search for photons and the directional search for photon point sources. The derived limits are of considerable astrophysical interest: Diffuse limits place severe constraints on top-down models and start to touch the predicted GZK photon flux range while directional limits can exclude the continuation of the electromagnetic flux from measured TeV sources with a significance …
We study the anisotropy in the arrival directions of PAO UHECRs, using the point source correlational angular distance distribution. The result shows that the anisotropy is characterized by one prominent excess region and one void region. The excess region is located near the Centaurus A direction, supporting that the Centaurus A is a promising UHECR source. The void region near the south pole direction may be used to limit the diffuse isotropic background contribution.
Using data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory, we search for signatures of instanton-induced processes that would provide evidence of super-heavy particles decaying in the Galactic halo. Such particles could have been produced sufficiently during the post-inflationary epoch to match the relic abundance of dark matter inferred today. The non-observation of these signatures allows us to probe the instanton strength and to derive a bound, the best ever obtained from instanton-mediated processes, on the reduced coupling constant of gauge interactions in the dark sector: $α_X \lesssim 0.09$,…
In the framework of the upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory, a new high voltage module is being employed for the power supply of the 1-inch photomultiplier added to each water-Cherenkov detector of the surface array with the aim of increasing the dynamic range of the measurements. This module is located in a dedicated box near the electronics and comprises a low consumption DC-DC converter hosted inside an aluminum box. All the modules have undergone specific tests to verify their reliability in the extreme environmental conditions of the Argentinian pampa. In this paper, we describe the v…
In this contribution we summarize the highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory presented at the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference. We discuss the update of the measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays over a wide range of energy ($10^{17.5}$ to above $10^{20}$ eV), studies of the cosmic-ray mass composition with the fluorescence and surface detector of the Observatory, the discovery of a large-scale anisotropy in the arrival direction of cosmic rays above $8\times 10^{18}$ eV and indications of anisotropy at intermediate angular scales above $4 \times 10^{19}$ eV. Moreover,…
The world largest exposure to ultra-high energy cosmic rays accumulated by the Pierre Auger Observatory led to major advances in our understanding of their properties, but the many unknowns about the nature and distribution of the sources, the primary composition and the underlying hadronic interactions prevent the emergence of a uniquely consistent picture. The new perspectives opened by the current results call for an upgrade of the Observatory, whose main aim is the collection of new information about the primary mass of the highest energy cosmic rays on a shower-by-shower basis. The evalua…
This paper summarizes the status and the recent measurements from the Pierre Auger Observatory. The energy spectrum is described and its features discussed. We report searches for anisotropy of cosmic ray arrival directions on large scales and through correlation with catalogues of celestial objects. We also present the search for anisotropies in the data without the use of astronomical catalogues. The first measurement of the proton-air cross section around 10^{18} eV is discussed. Finally, the mass composition is addressed with measurements of the variation of the depth of shower maximum wit…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest operating cosmic ray observatory ever built. Calorimetric measurements of extensive air showers induced by cosmic rays are performed with a fluorescence detector. Thus, one of the main challenges is the monitoring of the atmosphere, both in terms of atmospheric state variables and optical properties. To better understand the atmospheric conditions, a study of air mass trajectories above the site is presented. Such a study has been done using an air-modelling program well known in atmospheric sciences. Its validity has been checked using meteorologica…
